Helen Hunt makes capable women believable by letting us see how much effort their patience costs. We value her sharp timing and her willingness to let a romantic heroine be tired of the man she is meant to love.
Fi1m perspective
In As Good as It Gets (1997), Helen Hunt's waitress Carol Connelly makes dealing with Jack Nicholson's Melvin Udall look like work. Her resistance keeps their exchanges interesting once the joke has landed. We rate Hunt for making that effort visible without asking us to applaud Carol for putting up with him. She allows a romantic heroine to be irritated, and gives us good reason to share the irritation.
Her comic timing became familiar through Jamie Buchman in Mad About You (1992–1999), the sitcom that brought her to prominence. The move into major films included Jo Harding in Twister (1996) and Kelly Frears in Cast Away (2000). Across comedy and drama, she is convincing as a woman who is exhausted but still has things to do.
James L. Brooks gets good work from her in As Good as It Gets, though his screenplay does not always make Carol's interest in Melvin persuasive. Nicholson supplies the lines people remember; Hunt and Greg Kinnear make their effect on other people matter. We were more moved by her exasperation than by the film's deliberate tenderness, because she made the effort of dealing with him feel exhausting. Her performance makes the romance worth considering, but it cannot make every attempt to excuse Melvin convincing.
John Bailey's cinematography gives the actors room, and Richard Marks's editing makes the verbal exchanges satisfying. That suits Hunt: Carol has enough presence for us to attend to her response rather than simply await Nicholson's next line. Bill Brzeski's production design is discreet, with surroundings less revealing than the performances. Hans Zimmer's music sometimes encourages tenderness where Hunt and Kinnear have already provided enough.
Her feature directing began with Then She Found Me (2007), which she also wrote and starred in. She followed it with Ride (2014). Her frank, empathetic work as a sex surrogate in The Sessions (2012) offers another point of entry, with physicality and humour both important to the performance. For a first encounter, though, we would choose Carol, with the caveat that the film is more forgiving of Melvin than we are.
Biography
Helen Hunt is an American actress and director. Born on 15 June 1963, she began acting as a child and rose to fame portraying Jamie Buchman in the sitcom Mad About You (1992–1999), earning four Primetime Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards for the role.
In film, Hunt starred as Carol Connelly in As Good as It Gets (1997), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Other notable roles include appearances in Twister (1996), Cast Away (2000), What Women Want (2000) and The Sessions (2012), the last earning her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Hunt made her directorial debut with Then She Found Me (2007) and has since directed Ride (2014) as well as episodes of series including This Is Us and the Mad About You revival.
