Melvin and Howard

A film set in Nevada and based on a real claim. Melvin is driving in the desert at night. He sees a man lying at the roadside and takes him into the car. The man is filthy, bearded and silent. On the way Melvin makes him sing, and as he drops him in Las Vegas the man gives his name: Howard Hughes. Melvin does not believe him and forgets it. From there the film follows Melvin's life. A milk round, a petrol station, two marriages, a television game show, debts and repossessed furniture. What the narrative is interested in is not wealth but ordinariness: the film shows Melvin not as a loser but as someone who never manages to hold on to anything and keeps trying anyway. Years later Hughes dies. A will appears with Melvin's name in it; the share is around a hundred and fifty million dollars. Whether the document is genuine is never proved, and the film does not decide either. The narrative does not turn into a courtroom picture. The case stays in the background and the camera stays in Melvin's kitchen. His wife Lynda's dance on the game show is the best section and explains the character in one go. The film won two Academy Awards: Bo Goldman's original screenplay and Mary Steenburgen's supporting performance. The New York critics also gave it awards in nearly every major category. Paul Le Mat, Mary Steenburgen, Jason Robards, Pamela Reed and Elizabeth Cheshire are in the cast. Jonathan Demme directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes American cinema of the late 1970s and portraits of small lives. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a plot; the narrative is loose and deliberately inconclusive.