Compare this treatment of OCD/Tourette's with As Good As It Gets, and you have Hollywood versus reality. These mental conditions do not improve, and simply getting back on to medication (as Jack Nicholson does at the end of his film) is no solution at all. In radical contrast, Mark (Michael Sheen), the hero of 'Dirty Filthy Love' is seriously ill and completely marginalised, economically and socially. The story arc involves his difficult realisation of his own predicament, following his fraudulent marriage to a normal person, Stevie, who rejects his increasingly bizarre behaviour. Undestandably, she takes pity and tries to patch things up in bed, but that only drives Mark madder, until he becomes a full-blown stalker and pest, looking frightful and acting (over-acting) very spasmically. His rescuer, fellow sufferer Charlotte (Shirley Henderson), is obviously a better match, although it takes Mark the span of the action to understand. On the way, we gain plenty of insight (almost too much) into three mental conditions that make hell of sufferers' lives, although judging by As Good As It Gets, you'd never know it.
Review of Dirty Filthy Love
