As Good as it Gets

Have you ever seen As Good As It Gets, the late-nineties film starring Jack Nicholson? In it, Nicholson plays a cranky, misanthropic writer in New York City, snapping at anyone who crosses his path.

Though wealthy, he lives in self-imposed isolation, trapped by an endless list of phobias—he avoids sidewalk cracks, refuses to reuse a bar of soap, and shuns physical contact. His life is a rigid cycle: the same restaurant, the same table, the same…