ABSTRACT
One of the most popular romantic actresses in the last decade has been Helen Hunt,
whose appeal as a romantic heroine was recognized with her Academy Award® for her performance as Carol, the “good” single-mother waitress who changes Jack Nicholson’s “beastly” character, Melvin, from a mean obsessive-compulsive hypochondriac to a kind and loving gentle curmudgeon in the 1997 film As Good As It Gets. The memorable dinner-date scene in which Melvin offers Carol his “compliment”: “You make me want to be a better man” (to which Carol responds: “That’s about the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me”) is a perfect example of Galician’s (2004) Myth #7: “The love of a good and faithful true woman can change a man from a ‘beast’ into a ‘prince’” (p. 177).
