1. Extra Credit Essay
Effective Public Communication [FCOM 0102]
Individual Assignment
Yap Zhi Jun (0310738)
FNBE JAN 2012 – FCOM 0102
( Effective Public Communication)
Yap Zhi Jun ( 0310738 )

2. The movie that I choose is ‘As Good As Its Get’. This movie is a story of a single
mother (waitress), a misanthropic author and a gay artist form an unlikely friendship
after the artist is in an accident. I found three suitable concepts to be applied in this
movie, there are trust, self-esteem and proximity. The relationship between Melvin, the
misanthropic author and Carol, the single mother and also a waitress completely
explained out these three concepts.
The first concept that I use is trust. Trust is the belief or feeling that no harm will
come to you from the other person in the relationship. This concept can be showed
clearly in this movie between the Carol and Melvin. Carol was a waitress in a restaurant
and Melvin went to her restaurant every day to have his meal. He only wanted Carol to
serve him and he was very dependent on her. One day, Carol’s son was sick of asthma
and Carol has no choice but to skip work and stay with her son. Melvin went to the
restaurant and found out that Carol was not working that day. Then he went to Carol’s
house and asked her why he was not working. Moreover, Melvin requested Carol to
cook for him because he was starving. Carol became mad because of his terrible
altitude and temper. But, they trust each other. Although Melvin has bad attitude and
behavior but Carol still tolerated him and be his only server in the restaurant. She still
accepted Melvin’s invitation when Melvin asked her to have a vacation together. On the
other hand, Melvin did not mind of how other people said and thought, he went to the
same restaurant, sat on the same table and wanted Carol as his only server. He
observed Carol carefully and found out that she was not only a good waitress but also a
FNBE JAN 2012 – FCOM 0102
( Effective Public Communication)
Yap Zhi Jun ( 0310738 )

3. good mother who full with love. The only reason was he trust Carol and he felt
comfortable with her.
The next concept that I apply in this movie is self-esteem. Self-esteem is your
feelings of self-worth. In this movie, there were conflicts between Melvin and Carol. The
main reason the conflicts started was because of Melvin’s attitude problem. Melvin
suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder, which he was very sensitive when having
physical contact with others. To protect his self-esteem, he turned mad easily and
always said something that would hurt people feeling. In this movie, Melvin accidentally
said something bad about Carol’s son, and then Carol turned angry and scolded Melvin.
She thought that Melvin was not a good guy who always spoke something bad. In this
situation, Melvin should change his attitude and control his temper. Not only to protect
his self-esteem, he should also think about other people feeling when speak. In this
case, he should protect Carol’s self-esteem too as Carol was very care and sensitive
about her son issue. If Melvin could behave himself, conflicts between him and Carol
would not occur and they won’t have any misunderstanding between each other.
The last concept that I use in this movie is proximity. Proximity is about one is
more likely to marry someone geographically close. In this movie, Melvin and Carol
almost met everyday as Carol was Melvin only server in the restaurant. Because of
meeting everyday, they have the chance to know each other more. Melvin knew that
Carol’s son has serious asthma, so he requested help from his friend’s husband, who
was a professional doctor to be Carol’s son specialist doctor. Besides, Melvin willing to
pay all the medical expenses for Carol’s son. Because of this, Carol very appreciated
FNBE JAN 2012 – FCOM 0102
( Effective Public Communication)
Yap Zhi Jun ( 0310738 )

4. Melvin’s kindness and she thanked him by accepting his invitation for a vacation. She
also knew that Melvin has obsessive-compulsive disorder, so she tolerated him, taught
him how to speak in the right ways and also gave him the support to take medicine so
that he could control himself better. Melvin who hated medicine chose to take medicine
after meeting Carol because he said Carol is the only person who could change his
mind, he wanted to be a better man because of Carol. Even though Carol hated Melvin
at first, but because of their understanding on each other, their relationship become
closer and at the last scene of this movie, Carol accepted kisses form Melvin.
The three concepts that I use, trust, self-esteem and proximity are fully showed in
this movie. Because of their appreciation and treasure each other, this movie has a
happy ending. In a relationship, we must learn to appreciate and be thankful on what we
have, never aim or hope too high from others. Not only that, trust between each other
also very important in maintaining good relationship. We also must know to protect
other people’s self-esteem so that conflicts and misunderstanding can be avoided.
FNBE JAN 2012 – FCOM 0102
( Effective Public Communication)
Yap Zhi Jun ( 0310738 )