Then She Found Me (2007) User Reviews

Deserves a look

[wxgirl55 · 6/10 · 18 April 2008]

Seen at a September 2007 Toronto Film Festival screening.

First time director, Helen Hunt, said this movie was 10 years in the making. Her passion for the film and subject matter is evident, but also sets her up for her biggest downfall. She indulges the movie (her baby) which is interesting given this is relationship themed (mother/ daughter). Had she struck closer to that thread, the movie would have a tighter, more focused feel.

As it is, the outer reach of her film, a foray into her intimate, romantic relationships, with the intent of colouring her main character (April) instead seems like an untrained hand that colours outside of the lines. As a movie director, if this was her greatest weakness; I still give her kudos for doing a pretty good job. The woman took on a heavy load: first time directing, co-producer, co-writing the screenplay, and acting in the main role, all done on a 27 day shoot schedule! I almost feel guilty for any criticism.

At the post-screening Q&A Ms Hunt told us that the original story centred exclusively on the mother/daughter relationship. She wrote in the characters of Ben, her passive husband (Matthew Broderick) and Frank, her 'quickest rebound in history' mate (Colin Firth) herself. Understandablly she wants to add subtext to April's world and all the issues she's dealing with, but I felt somewhat 'pinballed' from scene to scene without feeling a smooth transition. A little more editing of these extra layers would help.

I can't leave it unsaid that what repeatedly struck me was why April loved her husband and continued to connect with him. He was such a shallow and thoughtless person. To me, that particular character was the weakest link in the movie.

Overall, I found many funny and poignant moments in the movie and think it deserves a look by a larger audience.

Another Biological Clock Ticks But Hunt Provides Heart and Conviction to Her Directorial Debut

[EUyeshima · 7/10 · 5 May 2008]

Having just seen "Baby Mama", which covers the same emotional territory but in much broader slapstick terms, this 2008 serio-comedy is driven far more by character than situation. In this case, the protagonist is 39-year-old April Epner, a New York schoolteacher who was raised in a close-knit Jewish family and desperately wants the biological connection of a birth child before her alarm clock goes off. She marries fellow teacher Ben, an inarticulate schlub with a terminal case of the Peter Pan Syndrome. After a brief time, he wants out of the marriage, and at almost the same time, April's adoptive mother Trudy dies. Not even a month goes by before April's biological mother suddenly shows up in the form of the brazenly overbearing but genuinely likable Bernice Graves, a cable talk-show hostess who is something of a local media celebrity. If life was not complicated enough, April also finds herself drawn to Frank, the single father of one of her pupils. Unlike Ben, he feels the same about April but is fighting his own bitterness about his own recent divorce.

Not only does Helen Hunt star as April, but she also co-wrote the screenplay with Alice Arlen and Victor Levin and makes her big-screen directorial debut. Granted she's more impressive as an actress than a filmmaker, but as a director and writer, she makes the most of a storyline that stacks the deck a bit like a Lifetime TV-movie. There are enough realistic surprises that take the plot off the rails in a good way. Looking gaunt and avoiding much make-up, Hunt is really playing a variation of the beaten-down waitress she played in "As Good As It Gets", as she carries that same constantly pained expression of disappointment and looks about to explode during moments of emotional duress. However, a decade later, Hunt inhabits the character more naturalistically this time and with a deeper sense of vulnerability and haggard exhaustion. Perhaps to minimize any unnecessary dramatic risk, Hunt cast the other principal roles with actors playing familiar parts. Matthew Broderick effectively portrays Ben as the perpetually dazed man-child he is, while perennial love interest Colin Firth gives texture to the seemingly ideal suitor Frank, especially as he edges toward the breaking point in tolerating the sum of April's foibles.

In one of her increasingly rare screen appearances, Bette Midler gives a scene-stealing performance as Bernice. She lights up the movie with Bernice's unfettered sense of abandonment while gradually exposing the secrets that threaten to undermine her newly found relationship with her daughter. Other parts are played with minimum fuss - Ben Shenkman as April's physician brother Freddy feeling put-upon for having a biological tie to their mother, and Salman Rushdie (author of "The Satanic Verses" which brought him a death sentence from the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989) as April's doctor. Hunt provides her actors, especially herself, plenty of good, meaty scenes with opportunities for bravura moments. It just doesn't quite come together as a whole by the end, and that may be that Hunt is so used to the sitcom format of the long-running series, "Mad About You". The result is that some laughs feel a bit contrived, some scene transitions seem jarring, and some expected character revelations are given short shrift. Nonetheless, the dramatic developments toward the end carry the emotional impact necessary to make the movie truly affecting, and Hunt should be given credit for a most auspicious debut as a filmmaker.

And Then What?

[moutonbear25 · 6/10 · 4 May 2008]

We've all had our share of bad weeks and I've heard numerous times before that when it rains it pours but yet that still doesn't seem to account for what happened to April Epner (Helen Hunt). A mere ten months into her marriage to Ben (Matthew Broderick), he decides he made a huge mistake. The next day, she goes to work, a school where she and Ben both taught to primary students, to find that he never showed up and is nowhere to be found. Within the week that follows, her adopted mother (Lynn Cohen) dies and her birth mother (Bette Midler) makes contact with her for the first time. It's no wonder the bags under April's eyes are so heavy.

Hunt's directorial debut, THEN SHE FOUND ME, begins so tragically but attempts then to lighten the mood with awkward comedy and untimely romance. The combination is a bizarre contradiction that just falls flat. It doesn't feel right to laugh just yet as there hasn't been time to mourn but we don't want to mourn either as we only just met these folks. We don't know how to feel or where to go and neither does the direction of the film. When the dust from April's disastrous week finally begins to settle, the film finally begins to breathe normally again and finds a particular charm in its decidedly neurotic voice. Still, it is more unsettling than it is satisfying.

While Hunt may be overly sentimental as a director, she finds a certain harshness in her acting style that becomes the film's most unifying source. As put upon as she is at this juncture in her life, she manages to juggle everything reasonably well by balancing between protecting herself, demanding what she deserves and allowing her defenses down at just the right moments and only to those who deserve entry. The woman deserves happiness, be that in the form of a new love with troubled suitor, Frank (Colin Firth), or by realizing her longtime desire to have a child, but her life only gets continuously more complicated, sometimes by her own doing. I would ordinarily want to hug someone in April's position but mostly I just wanted to shake her.

What ultimately undermines THEN SHE FOUND ME is its own air of self-loathing. Hunt spends so much time trying to incite sympathy for April by dumping so many hard realities on to her at once but then punishes her when all she has done is try to keep her head above water. It's hard to feel love for a face on the screen when the woman who put her there hasn't made up her mind herself.

Bonding: Necessities and Consequences

[gradyharp · 6/10 · 4 September 2008]

In a featurette on the DVD release version of THEN SHE FOUND ME writer (with Alice Arlen and Victor Levin) /producer/director Helen Hunt shares a ten year journey to have a film made of a novel by Elinor Lipman. Her cast shares in the very sentimental story of Hunt's devotion and seemingly endless charisma and abilities. The explanation for making this budget film are in many ways more successful than the film, a work the cast seems determined to classify as a comedy but a work that is far more a human drama.

April Epner (Helen Hunt) is married to fellow schoolteacher Ben Green (Matthew Broderick) and longs to have a baby before her advancing age prevents her dream. April was adopted as an infant by a Jewish couple who subsequently gave birth to April's brother Freddy (Ben Shenkman): April has always longed to have been Freddy's biological equal, wondering what it would feel like NOT to be adopted. April's busy life implodes: Ben has decided he doesn't like his life and leaves April, April's mother dies, April meets Frank (Colin Firth) a recently divorced writer and father of two children, and April is contacted by a man who can put April in touch with her birth mother - popular TV talk show hostess Bernice Graves (Bette Midler). And if these turns of events weren't traumatic enough, April discovers that she has become pregnant by Ben and Ben is unsure whether he can handle the restructuring of his life to accommodate April. Cautiously April and Frank begin a rather tenuous courtship which is almost immediately threatened by April's discovery of her pregnant state. April and Bernice meet, exchange backgrounds, and make pacts to test their biologic relationship. How each of these characters makes promises that eventually damage each other and then resolve in unexpected ways becomes a study of the meaning of love and compassion among fragile human beings.

While not a satisfying story on every level and a film too cluttered with inconvenient editing choices, the cast is strong and obviously committed, and the story (neither a comedy or a drama but a mixture of the two) tests credibility. But there are some fine moments and the lessons in human behavior are worth examining. Not a great movie but a strong little small budget film. Grady Harp

A Sleeper

[[e-mail] · 6/10 · 18 September 2011]

If "Then She Found Me" got any real notice when it came out, it certainly passed by me. I didn't know what to expect when I chose the streaming video version, mainly because I've always liked Helen Hunt, and she's backed by a pretty impressive cast. Although it's certainly no blockbuster, the film is well worth seeing. Since it is immediately disclosed, I don't feel I'm spoiling anything in saying that Hunt plays the part of an adopted woman whose marriage at age 39 fails almost immediately because her groom (Matthew Broderick) is completely immature. Hunt's character (April Hepner) is unexpectedly confronted by her birth mother (Bette Midler) and also finds herself in a potentially romantic relationship with Frank (Colin Firth), a single father with two children whose wife left the family to travel around the world with her lover. April desperately wants to have a child, and time is quickly running out. Complications ensue on several fronts -- with her birth mother, with the husband from whom she is separated, and with Frank and Frank's kids. Hunt directed this film and co-wrote the script. Although she's a little old to be 39 again, she's still slim, beautiful, a skilled comic actress and believable in a serious, emotionally wrenching role. I can't give the movie more than a 6 but I liked it. The ending, which I won't describe, is plausible but a little too abrupt. However, I'll concede that filling the gap could not have been done quickly. And that's a potent argument for ending it without an explanation as they chose to do.

Wretched Script Cannot Be Redeemed by All Star Cast

[Danusha_Goska · 3/10 · 20 March 2009]

"Then She Found Me" is a wretched movie, and it should not be. The talent here is undeniable: Helen Hunt, Colin Firth, Matthew Broderick, Bette Midler. The problem? An unforgivably awful script. Can anyone in Hollywood read? Hollywood is a world capital of entertainment, of magic; there is so much talent there. And yet, year after year, these awful scripts are greenlighted and talented writers starve. What gives?

The main character, April Epner (Helen Hunt) is never fleshed out. What we do know about her makes her incredibly unappealing. She's obsessed with her plump, middle-aged, boy-man husband (Broderick) who has left her to live in his mother's house. April is shrill and rude to her dying mother. She's manipulative and callow in her interactions with Colin Firth, the man all sensible women love and would treat like the treasure he is. In a particularly painful scene, Frank (Firth) makes a poignant confession of love to April, and she blows him off in order to gripe to her husband in a cell phone call. I was literally shouting at the screen, "Run, Colin, run! Get away from this nasty loser female as fast as ever you can!" It doesn't stop there. April attempts to have a quickie with her husband in the back seat of a car. On a busy city street. In broad daylight. With the car door open. It was such an ugly, gratuitous scene. It marked April as someone suffering from borderline personality disorder. But it doesn't stop there. April casually invites both her husband and her boyfriend to her gynecologist's office for an exam, in stirrups and johnny coat, to ascertain that she is pregnant, by her husband. WHY should we care about this woman? Why should Colin Firth be attracted to her? What inspired his poignant love confession? Nothing. There is nothing on screen, nothing in the script, that ever fleshes his attraction out.

Speaking of "flesh" … if you read comments here or on the web, you can see that most viewers were fixated on how haggard Helen Hunt looks. She is very thin, and time has not been kind to her face. In some scenes, it is impossible to look at her and not want to sit her down and get some food into her, she looks that much like a refugee from some catastrophe. Some viewers applauded Hunt for being "brave" and allowing the camera access, but focusing on Helen Hunt's courage utterly detracts from ever registering April Epner as a flesh and blood human being. You're not thinking about April Epner, you're thinking, "Hmm…how could Helen Hunt change her look?" Similarly, Bette Midler is never convincing as the character she is playing. She is always Bette Midler, bodacious saloon singer, breezing through a film with a script that is decidedly unworthy of any attempt on her part to bother to pretend to be anyone but Bette Midler.

Failed films like this are so painful because there are so few movies made for women over forty. The glory days that could produce a script like Mankiewicz's "All About Eve" are long behind us. Drek like this make us miss classics like that all the more. Older women do lead interesting lives. There are so many real questions that this film could have explored for a forty-plus schoolteacher whose husband wants to leave her. This film ignored all of those real questions and just plopped Colin Firth, the perfect man, and Bette Midler, STAR, in as phony, bogus attempts to stir up some kind of a plot. Sorry – without writing talent and insight, which this script utterly lacks – even starpower like Firth's and Middler's can't create a worthy film.

An AAA for effort but a C+C+C+ for quality

[mauricebarringer · 7/10 · 18 May 2008]

I want to praise Helen Hunt for directing this unpretentious character study of people with real problems at a time when big budget super hero movies with all plot and no character development are the mainstream.

Unfortunately, I felt that Bette Midler and Helen Hunt were acting in 2 separate films as the mother and daughter. Midler seemed to be acting in a big budget over-the-top romantic comedy while Hunt was understated and subtle as a complicated lady in a small movie that was a fine character study. The 2 ladies didn't seem to be on the same planet.

Also I felt that the performances were stilted at times and there were too many scenes involving over-acting. An example was the fine actor Colin Firth yelling and cussing toward the end of the film after having been so contained the rest of the film.

I do want to again compliment Helen Hunt for this sincere and intelligent film but feel that it was quite uneven at times. I will give her an A grade for effort and sincerity but a C+ grade for the script and performances.

Hooray for Helen Hunt

[jjcremin-1 · 10/10 · 15 April 2008]

Actually, it's very unlikely if "Then She Found Me" will take in the bucks that a new James Bond or Indiana Jones movie might do. But I just saw an advanced screening last night through Film Independent with Hunt present for q and a. I must say I was extremely satisfied. A chick flick this is, but it's a masterful one and I highly recommend it. Gestating for ten years, she took the plunge as co-producer, co-writer, played the lead character and made her directorial feature debut of this tale of broken trusts and betrayals.

I will do my best not to reveal any spoilers as there are many surprises here and probably best seen without even seeing the trailer. I will say there's a strong Jewish theme that the novel this was based on had and Hunt saw no reason to change that. In fact, atonement is very big in the Jewish faith. It starts off with her getting married to Matthew Broderick and we quickly find out that he's totally pathetic and selfish.

Hunt gets outstanding performances from Colin Firth and Bette Midler whose own characters have their own baggage that Hunt's character is forced to deal with. That in itself is what makes "Then She Found Me" so refreshing. We human beings are so imperfectly perfect and the issues the players here play with are quite believable. On top of everything else, Helen Hunt's character has a baby time clock and she's no longer a spring chicken.

As an actress, she is as good as she was in "As Good As It Gets". Actually, there is some "borrowed" dialog towards the ending from that, but that's a moot point. It's perfectly acceptable to repeat what one has done before especially if it was done well. How many times has Woody Allen copied himself and seems to get more self centered each time? With this film, Helen Hunt has proved a woman can also make an excellent film of fractured relationships, a genre he did help invent.

In closing, I do hope this film gets the attention it deserves. Like a lot of geeks, I sit through a lot of films and most disappoint or I find myself looking at my watch. Not so with this one, I found this to be very insightful and entertaining.

Great movie, especially for the married, divorced and close to forty set

[cloudymorning · 7/10 · 3 May 2008]

I popped into the theater one night because I happened to be driving by and had some time to myself. I hadn't seen a movie in a while and had no idea what was playing or what "Then She Found Me" was about, but 'Colin Firth' and 'Helen Hunt' caught my eye so I figured I couldn't go wrong.

I was expecting your typical light-hearted rom-com, but instead found myself engrossed in a very moving and believable story, thanks to the marvelous acting of Firth and Hunt. Still romantic and still on the lighter side, but with nice balance of despair and heartache to remind you that life sucks sometimes.

In my humble opinion, however, Matthew Broderick came across as a bit blank and not quite believable as the "one person in the world" that could make Helen Hunt do anything. And quite frankly (I know I'll get slammed for this), Bette Middler bore my socks off. Does she ever play any other type of character? It was like "Beaches" all over again. That being said, Firth and Hunt were still able carry out a damn good movie.

Helen Hunt shouldn't cast herself

[MdlndeHond · 1/10 · 22 August 2010]

Helen Hunt I always considered a very mediocre actress and general a miss cast in every production. I guess that makes me bias. When a bad actor is also a poor director and then casts her self as the lead character..now that is just aiming for disaster. And in all fairness it doesn't have to be, Ben Affleck: horrible actor-great director.

The story, resembling a season of Days of our Lives in a nutshell doesn't become deeper than a wading pool and Hunt making painful faces makes just for a lot of smurking. On top of that character April Epner is so annoying that you don't understand why people are making any effort for her. Colin Firth looks way too young and too sparkly for his part. And although she keeps saying that she is 39, Hunt obviously is far too old for her part and looks it. Firth and Midler are playing her off the screen and wasting their talents here. Dreadful waste of time.

Pleasant directorial debut from Helen Hunt

[ametaphysicalshark · 6 August 2008]

The first forty or so minutes of "Then She Found Me" are quite excellent, with Hunt showing impressive skill for a rookie director, the score standing out as quite good, and the acting being very good. The script is surprisingly funny for the most part, and has a sense of authenticity and realism that works in favor of the film. The main problem with the film going past the halfway mark is that little of any real interest is happening, and nothing really stands out. It's still amusing, still well-made, still not a bad film by any stretch of imagination, but there's also absolutely nothing that left me wanting to see it again.

6.5/10

By definition alone, it be bittersweet.

[hitchcockthelegend · 7/10 · 25 August 2009]

For her first feature length directorial picture, Helen Hunt adapts from Elinor Lipman's best selling novel of the same name. Casting herself along side Colin Firth, Bette Midler and Matthew Broderick, Hunt's film follows the uneasy emotional path to fulfilment of April Epner {Hunt}. Shortly after separating from her husband Sam {Broderick}, April's world is further shaken by the death of her adoptive mother. Yet solace is in the offering in the form of divorced single parent Frank {Firth}, but things start to get complicated by the sudden appearance of Bernice Graverman {Midler}. A bold showy talk show host who just happens to claim to be April's birth mother! All that and now Sam is having second thoughts about letting their marriage go..........

Then She Found Me achieves that rare bittersweet thing of managing to blend its humour comfortably with its warm and intelligent core. Also boosted by having its fine cast performing well with the material, it's a film just waiting to be discovered by more people than it evidently has thus far. That's not to say new viewers will instantly become fans of it, because for sure there are problems in the screenplay. But being tagged, as it has in some quarters, as the female bedfellow to Sideways is possibly about right. Which ultimately makes for an interesting viewing experience at the very least. Hunt's picture, as light as it is in the main, has a touch of sadness to it, certainly the characters are rather difficult to like, not because they are defined by who they are, but by what they do. It's an oddity in the film that surprisingly helps the film along. Apparently different from the source novel in terms of dialogue and the Frank/April axis, the film has much to say about the foibles of a woman approaching middle age. A woman who suddenly finds herself at the crossroads of her life, to which it's being influenced by other sources.

The direction is steady and Hunt manages to garner fine turns from her cast. There is nothing tricksy or technically brilliant within the piece. But it is a notable humanistic film that is content to let its earthiness see it home. Not a comedy to split your sides with, and not a drama to shake you to your very core. It's a sweet, intelligent picture that is worth the time of day if you be interested in this type of human story. 7/10

Not her best effort

[shelleys-7 · 3/10 · 4 May 2008]

Although I've heard a lot of gushing about the quality of this movie, I was very disappointed in the final result! I think Hunt was trying to duplicate the tone and tempo of "As Good as It Gets", but as when most people try to duplicate anything, there is failure. I think Helen should stick to acting and forget about directing. Matthew Broderick's character was miscast and he never figured out who he was or even what he was doing in the film. Colin Firth wasn't allowed to reveal his true nature either. Bette Midler, a monumental talent was just under-used. All points to poor direction in my book. The touching moments are a bit maudlin and the funny parts aren't that funny. You can skip this one and rent it on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Hunt shines in a mixed-bag comedy/drama

[Buddy-51 · 6/10 · 17 February 2011]

Played by first-time director Helen Hunt, April is a 39-year-old elementary school teacher in Brooklyn whose biological clock has been ticking so loudly it's been keeping her up at night. But that's just the beginning of her woes. Her husband of just a few months (Matthew Broderick) has left her; her adoptive mother has just died; and a crazy lady (Bette Midler) - a local TV talk show host - is claiming to be her biological mother (with Steve McQueen as her father, no less). Then, just as her midlife crisis is coming to a boil, in steps a conveniently abandoned father of two (Colin Firth) - one of whom is April's pupil - to sweep her off her feet, though he comes with his own share of problems as well.

Though "Then She Found Me" is not quite as shopworn and trite as that synopsis may make it sound, it's still an uneasy mixture of insightful drama and plot-tweaking contrivance. In fact, the Alice Arlen/Victor Levin/Helen Hunt screenplay, based on the 1990 novel by Elinor Lipman, tries so hard to be unconventional that it often winds up feeling fake. On the positive side, though, the acting is good (why have we seen so little of Hunt on screen since she won her Oscar fourteen years ago?); the characters skew a little older than your typical romantic comedy figures; the story ends on a tremendously sweet note, and there's just enough genuine humor and charm in the movie to make it worth a look-see.

One side note: the movie makes a continuity error by claiming that April was conceived in 1966 when McQueen was off in China filming "The Sand Pebbles," but later we're told she was conceived when her mother was at a drive-in showing of "Bullitt," which wasn't even released until 1968!

Then She Found Me

[rajdoctor · 5/10 · 5 July 2008]

I had like Helen Hunt a lot in - As Good as you get – where she won her best actress Oscar in 1997. So, when I heard that she is directing a movie, that interested me. I saw the trailers, and though they did not immediately attract me, I decided to give this movie a go.

In her late thirtees, schoolteacher April Epner (Helen Hunt) - seeking to be pregnant and be a biological mother - marries Benjamin (Matthew Broderick), but things do not work out her way and they saperate. April's step mother dies, and she gets traced by her biological mother Bernice (Bette Midler) after 38 years. After that, April meets Frank (Colin Firth) – father of two children; both fall in love. Soon she realizes that she is pregnant with the child of her ex-husband Benjamin. April's is undecisiveness between Benjamin and Frank. In meantime – she mis-carries the child, and after a small triffle with Frank, then she realizes adopting a child and being with Frank. That's how the movie ends.

Ten years have passed since Helen won the Oscar. The burden of Oscar always mounts on all those who have won it – they want to do it one more time, and with no strong scripts coming by – they venture into self produced or self directed movies – to showcase their talents – one more Oscar…one more feather of appreciation. Helen's movie as director is such an attempt.

The movie has a story line that is linear, and the characters are complex – but they are not exciting. All of them have acted well. Helen Hunt is a very sensitive actress and she acts brilliantly even with the twitch of her eyes or lips. Bette Midler always fills in the character that becomes her. Colin Firth has mastered the role of one of the other man in a triangle love story and always delivers good performance. Matthew's role is comparatively small.

I could not understand the motivation of Helen's indecisiveness, and that looked foolish to me. Another thing that distracted me from her performance was her aneroxic physic – at times though she calls herself 39 (at her current age of 44 years) – she looks 49. Is becoming so thin something Hollywood actresses learn to do? If done with purpose, I think, they all look terrible. I think Helen could have taken another actress – and the movie would had been much better.

The love scenes and kisses are also felt as if 'breakers' in the flow of the movie. Nothing great about editing, cinematography or music – quite okay and normal.

The movie presents the complexities of middle aged women and their biggest fear of not getting pregnant before time. It also gives a message that 'adopting' a baby is always a good option.

The movie might be liked by women and those men like me - who can sit through a feminine story, trying to understand the other half and their emotions. I will go with… (Stars 5.5 out of 10)

a grounded in reality chick flick that is terrific

[soutexmex · 8/10 · 7 July 2008]

This movie is not bad at all.

I caught the first 10 minutes as I waiting for the film I came to see started. I was intrigued and came back the following week to see this little gem of a movie.

With Colin Firth and Matthew Broderick playing against type, it was a relief not to see them so admirable in their roles. Yes, Bette Midler played the typical yenta shrew but hey, at least we see Bette. She's been away from the screen for far too long.

I'll be the first to tell you I have never been a Helen Hunt fan at all. I have never even seen her hit t.v. series, Mad About You. Something about her just rubbed me the wrong way in the movies I have seen her in. But then, I saw this movie and I loved it and she did a terrific job in her production.

Seriously. All these people who are criticizing her are slamming her for the wrong reasons. Why? This is one of those FEW films in life in which it's neither the director, writer, or actor's fault. If there is any downside, it's the editor's fault. Yes, it is.

Why? Because the editor chopped up the scenes. In the editing room, a director can become a genius or a fool. This is one of those cases. I do not fault Helen's direction. I fault the editor here. Some of these scenes should have been allowed to breathe on their own, not jump cut from one emotion to the next.

Despite that editing distraction, this chick flick has heart, it does have emotion. How do I know this? I heard a lot of sniffling, tears of sorrow and joy in the audience when this film ended. That is what a film is suppose to do, make you feel something, be a participant, not a witness.

Truthfully considered emotions and family conflicts adorned with a sitcom bow...

[moonspinner55 · 7/10 · 19 April 2009]

Helen Hunt does wonderful work starring in this romantic comedy-drama which she also directed, co-produced and co-wrote, based upon Elinor Lipman's book. She's a 39-year-old Jewish schoolteacher, childless and about to be divorced from her 'best friend,' who harbors old wounds about being adopted (and has conflicted emotions about adopting a child herself). After reuniting with her biological mother, a well-meaning TV celebrity, Hunt begins dating a new guy, only to find herself pregnant by her soon-to-be ex-husband. Although the film's conception is overly-precious, with editing choices and scene transitions designed to be flippant or cute, Hunt gets terrific performances from her cast (most notably from herself, as the actress has not been this flexible or willowy on-screen in years). New love-interest Colin Firth is bursting with anxieties and torments, and yet it's easy to see why Hunt considers him the one man who truly understands her: their self-doubts and insecurities match and mellow each other out. As with most modern movies, these working people seem to have unlimited time at their disposal for reunions, heartfelt conversations or angry confrontations. Still, some of the dialogue is testy in the exact right way, as if the characters are challenging one another to drop their pretenses and tell the truth. The film has intricate problems--and it jumps too far ahead in time near the finish to make it a wholly satisfying or moving experience--but it does have Hunt and Firth, and they are lovely to watch. *** from ****

This movie manages to be turgid and silly at the same time

[tomgrant3 · 3 September 2008]

"Then She Found Me" is an insult to the intelligence. At least with the "American Pie" and "Saw" franchises you know what you're in for. A cast like this leads one to expect some degree of quality -- or at least coherence. Wrong! Helen Hunt is an unsmiling, self-absorbed, masochistically willing victim. Matthew Broderick is meant to be a feckless Peter Pan but doesn't convey a scintilla of that. Bette Midler is woefully miscast in a role that completely ignores her comedic and dramatic talents. Colin Firth's character -- also grumpy and funereal in demeanor -- acts and reacts entirely without plausible motivation. John Benjamin Hickey flits around enigmatically like some latter-day Tinker Bell. It's as if all the characters were just put in front of the camera without directorial discussion of the movie's message, plot or intent. I'm not sure it's fair to blame Hunt (as director) because the screenplay is unrelievedly lousy. Not only is it poorly plotted, the "cute" dialog is in fact just plain dumb. This film will appeal only to those willing to suspend even subatomic levels of disbelief.

No synopsis just perceptions

[Mistrcoffe · 7/10 · 17 March 2013]

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. I thought I was a fan of Colin Firth but found that NOW I am a fan. I had no trouble believing he was his character. I think he expressed the confused and conflicting emotions that his trauma would create. Helen Hunt was in her element playing an intelligent emotional woman. I have loved Bette Midler since The Divine Miss M show in the 70's and she was stellar again. I enjoyed Ben Shenkmen quite a bit especially since the last pic I saw him in was Must Love Dogs where he played the shallow misogynist so well. I think if you are a fan of any of the cast and/or like movies that have points that relate to the real world it is well worth your time.

decent Lifetime-style movie that tries to deal with some simple-but-complex issues

[Quinoa1984 · 6/10 · 8 June 2008]

Then She Found Me is Helen Hunt's directorial debut. Not a terrible one at all. She involves us, the audience, maybe more-so a female audience than male (not that a man can't enjoy the movie on its comedy/drama terms), though this is mostly after its first quarter or third way through. Up until almost half an hour into the film, the entire picture feels rushed with incident and things suddenly happening to April (Hunt), as she gets married, gets separated/sort-of-divorced, her adopted Jewish mother dies, and she maybe falls in love. Also, I forgot to mention, her real mother (Bette Midler) contacts her out of the blue and tells her that her father is maybe Steve McQueen. All she'd need is a bird going to the bathroom on her head to put the icing on the cake.

What the story then develops as is how April deals with the men in her life- her new love played in the best performance by Colin Firth- and her ex played by Matthew Broderick, who may be the father of 39 year-old April's first possible baby. And, also, how the hell to cope with finally having a mother who abandoned her at the age of 16. So much drama! So much awkward comedy to boot, like both Firth and Broderick accompanying Hunt to the doctor on the baby situation (featuring a surprise bit part from Salman Rushdie!) It's a shame then it only works so much; Hunt wants for so much of this to click, but it's kind of like Bergman or Woody Allen-lite. While this makes it a slight cut above the other crappy Lifetime movies of its ilk, it isn't helped much by Midler, who is annoying as ever, and an unsatisfying ending.

Take the wife or the misses or the new girlfriend. Then only remember in passing that you saw it and maybe liked it, a little.

Why is Helen Hunt playing a 39 year old when she is 46?

[Sally_Smith · 1/10 · 30 November 2009]

I love women who age gracefully and Helen Hunt is certainly one of them - letting all of her wrinkles become part of her character but honestly why on earth would she try to play a 39 year old woman when she is 46? I am 36 and find this highly offensive to put a woman who is very wrinkled (and laden down with all kinds of emotional baggage) in the role of a 39 year old. I know 39 is not exactly young but I don't know any 39 year old with as many deep wrinkles as Helen Hunt - I just think it puts across a really bad image for women - whiny, desperate and ugly.

Also, what on earth was Colin Firth doing in that film? And why on earth did they make him play a mentally unstable sad father - there is no way that he would ever be like that - it just does not suit his character. Should have got someone like Nicolas Cage to do it and it may have been half believable. Also their relationship was completely ridiculous and why did he keep saying she was so beautiful when clearly she was ugly inside and out?

And poor Matthew Broderick - made to look like a blubbering fool - has it really come to this for him?

The only highight of the film was the wonderful Babs but she just kept getting treated appallingly by the god awful Helen Hunt character. A whiny New Yorker might have been funny in an 80's TV show but honestly, I think we've all moved on from then. Pity Helen Hunt hasn't.

Surprisingly good

[willowgrove · 7/10 · 18 April 2010]

I rented this movie because of her co-stars as I am admittedly not particularly a Helen Hunt fan. I didn't even know the plot. Some reviewers gave this a pretty scathing review and I may be a bit biased but I thought the film was smart, funny, sad, frustrating...all the things we experience in life.

The main threads in the movie also are very common in life: betrayal, anger, love, regret, redemption...woven through a cast of characters performed very, very well. I found myself drawn in to the pathos of the characters as they dealt with devastating as well as wonderful circumstances.

I admit that a main topic in the film-having/adopting children is very close to my heart but I think it is a very worthwhile film and one of the few films I've seen that deals realistically with the heartbreak of wanting a baby and finding it achingly difficult. The film also handles well the complications of human relationships.

Worth the watch for me as a fan of the cast. Even Hunt whom I had not seen much of but was impressed by in this role.

Sorry, but I think it was just an awful film and.....

[sierrasunshine · 2/10 · 23 October 2008]

I want my 2 hours back! I rented this movie with hopes of seeing a movie I could relate to being that I am a single and without children. Instead I saw a ridiculous piecemeal of a movie that is mostly unbelievable. The emotional connections between all the characters didn't make sense, i.e. how any of them continued having anything to do with each other given the inability any of them have to carry on a mature (not in the sexual way, which happens plenty often in this movie) relationship. And how any man found April attractive despite the constant befuddled expression on her face (maybe she was trying to be like a young Meg Ryan--a rare woman that was able to be cute in doing that look) as well as the nervous tapping of her forehead is beyond me. The only real fun there was in watching this movie was in Bette Midler's character, which after a short time seemed ridiculously misplaced in this movie. Even if I consider the fact that this was a human drama, of which I really appreciate in theater, it doesn't change the fact that it was poorly put together. Sorry Helen Hunt--I am still a big fan of your TV show, Mad About You, but I think you should stick to acting with a different director. But don't feel bad---hardly anything coming out of Hollywood is really commendable.

Deliciously Human

[opiumeyedlove · 9/10 · 19 December 2007]

This is perhaps the most deliciously human movie I've seen this year. It's messy unbearably so at times. The lives these people are living are hard to watch, but you can't look away.

I'm a cinematography girl myself and this movie doesn't have stunning panoramic views or killer photography, but it does have great character development and a cohesive plot.

Helen Hunt kills in the title role and as a director. She made me believe she was the woman not that she was acting to be this woman. There's a subtle difference.

Colin Firth delivers as always and Bette Midler stuns. This movie has Oscar written all over it.

An Average Chicken Flicken (Saved By Bette!)

[asda-man · 6/10 · 22 June 2011]

"Then She Found Me" opens as something we've all seen before. Some sort of crazy Jew ceremonies (don't worry I'm not antisemitic) we've seen religious antics in all types of romcoms whether it be in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", the wonderful "Sixty Six" or even in the opening of "Schindler's List" (not a romcom but nevertheless brilliant) and so we know what we've let ourselves in for. An average trip down predictable lovers lane. The plot is outlined in our heads already. Woman single, woman finds someone she likes, woman falls out with her fancy man due to complications, woman eventually marries love interest with some good humour and various subplots inbetween. Yep, that's basically what we've got here only we've got a long lost mum (or 'mom') thrown into the entertaining mix as well as our hero's quest for pregnancy.

So we know it's predictable like most romcoms but "The She Found Me" is saved by the hilarious Bette Mudler who I would happily watch any film for. Not only is Miss Midler a talented actress and singer, but she has perfect comic timing and so gets all the best lines and rightly so! Bette Midler is the saviour of this piece and I don't think she's in it enough! Whenever our dear Bette is off screen we're just praying for her to make a return and on this occasion she plays an interfering yet endearing mother who magically reappears in a rather rough looking Helen Hunt's life.

Helen has had a big trial during this film, not only being the main star of the film (even though Bette steals that from her) but she also wrote the screenplay (with two others so they probably did all the work) and also directed it! Helen the actress is OK, she has won an Oscar but didn't deserve it, Helena Bonham Carter was the worthy winner in that line-up but as Helen's the only yankee doodle dandy there, she has to win it doesn't she! Anyway, yeah she's OK, nothing special, she's actually quite an annoying character which isn't always a good thing. Helen the writer is good on the one-liners (if she wrote them) but not so good on the story development. Finally, Helen the director is very average, though there isn't much flare to direct with within a romantic comedy.

Oh, and we also have our dear King of England, Bertie Firth (or is it Colin?) King George anyway, he's playing an English idiot who Helen quite fancies. Colin's character isn't particularly likable either so him and Helen are suited for each other.

Overall, this is the type of film where you can put your knickers on the radiator, heat them up, put them on, get all comfy on your one-seater sofa with the massaging back (I have no idea what I'm typing here!) And get ready for some predictable heart-felt, cosy romcom with a few belly laughs amongst the mostly unlikable characters. Best enjoyed with a mug of chips.