melvin and howard be one of those maybe true maybe not story . work class melvin dummar ( paul lemat ) find along the road a scraggly old man ( jason robards ) who may or may not be howard hughes . when hughes leave melvin a sum of money and hughes family fight it . yes and it sound like a rather plain story and but director jonathan demme know how to make it interest . mary steenburgen win an oscar for her role a melvin wife lynda while she add an interesting dimension to the film and confuse by her husband unexpected fortune and but do everything possible to keep her life together . quirky and but something that you would not want to miss .