Then She Found Me
Starring: Matthew Broderick, Colin Firth, Helen Hunt, Bette Midler, Salman RushdieDirector: Helen Hunt
Studio: THINKFILM
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Running Time: 100 minutes
DVD Release: September 2nd 2008
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DVD Review
An all-star cast with memorable performances by Helen Hunt, Matthew Broderick, Bette Midler and Colin Firth powers this smart, funny drama about love and destiny. Desperate to start a family, schoolteacher April Epner (Hunt) is thrown into confusion when she is unexpectedly abandoned by her husband (Broderick). She gets another shock when she meets her unusual birth mother (Midler), a self-centered talk show host who's not exactly the ideal mom. At first she rejects her, along with the attentions of a divorced dad (Firth), but then she begins to find her life opening up in ways she had never imagined.
User Reviews
Another Biological Clock Ticks...But Hunt Provides Heart and Conviction to Her Directorial Debut - Rating: 4/5
Released earlier this year, Baby Mama covers the same emotional territory but in much broader slapstick terms, while 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 kindergarten teacher 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 likeable 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 the character'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 (yes, the controversial author of The Satanic Verses which brought him a death sentence from the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989) as April's doctor. Hunt provides the principal actors, especially herself, plenty of good, meaty scenes with opportunities for bravura moments, and they do deliver. 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 incomplete 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 full credit for a most auspicious debut as a filmmaker.
Who did she find? - Rating: 4/5
This film is a promising directorial debut for Helen Hunt. While I found some of the editing to be awkward or sub-par, and dialog to be a bit stilted here and there; the overall film is quite good, and has many layers of meaning and sub-texts to explore.
The title of the film is a good place to start: "Then She Found Me". Who found whom? Was it Helen Hunt's Character (April Epner) finding a new life companion after her husband leaves? Her birth mother (played with panache and humor by Bette Midler) finding April after April's adoptive mother dies? April finding herself? Or (to avoid spoilers) April finding something else? Even her character's name implies a new birth and new beginnings...
The answer to the question is "all of the above"...
The film is, in many ways, about discovery: discovery of what is (and isn't) real, what is truth, what has value, and what it means to be family.
Helen's character works through all of these issues in this film with sensitivity, mild humor, and a performance that exposes April's vulnerability at many different levels as she searches for answers.
I find the portayals of Jewish family life (which is a major component of the framework of the story) to be very well done (no surprise, given that much of the cast is Jewish).
Of particular interest is the performance of Salman Rushdie as her Gynecologist. While not a professional actor, his presence is a reminder that we're dealing with very human challenges here. Issues that we all face at some point in our lives, regardless of race, religion, or creed. Of particular interest in this vein is the scene where April (as a Jew), her birth mother (as a Catholic) and the Doctor (who is a Muslim) all join together in prayer after April confesses she is angry with God.
Although the desire for a child is the central goal of April's character, this film is definitely not meant for children to watch. There are a number of reasonably explicit adult situations, and partial nudity - even though tastfully done - is frequent.
"Then She Found Me" has won awards at some Film Festivals, but, though full of promise of greater things to come from Helen Hunt, it is a bit rough around the edges, and too controversial and explicit in some of its subject matter to be in the running for a major award. Even so, I thoroughly enjoyed the film.
I rate this film as a four star performance: an excellent script and excellent performances, despite a few flaws here and there.
Definitely recommended as a "must see" if you and your better half prefer romantic comedies that are more than mindless fluff. ...Just be sure to put the kids to bed first!
Tale of two women needing children - Rating: 3/5
In the beginning of this film, based on Elinor Lipman's novel of the same title, April (Hunt) and Ben (Broderick) are getting married. The very next scene is Ben leaving to return to his overprotective Jewish mother.
Next April, who met Ben teaching classes across the hall from him, discovers that Ben quit his job and she's stuck with his classes as well. That's when she meets Frank (Colin Firth) the divorced parent of one of her kids. Frank wants to see April, but he's too hurt by his own life to make that commitment.
Just when you think things are complicated enough for April, enter Bernice (Midler) a talk show hostess who claims to be April's Mom. When April finds that Bernice isn't quite truthful, she offers the woman one more challenge to stay in her life--help me get the baby I want.
The story's heartfelt, but I think it's probably "Lifetime" or movie-of-the-week material rather than the big screen. Hunt, Firth, and Midler are in top form, but Broderick just doesn't quite cut it.
One warning: bring a hankie or three. This is another one of those Midler films you're going to cry through.
Rebecca Kyle, June 2008
not as tender and thought-provoking as one would hope - Rating: 3/5
An unusual story that ends a bit too cinematically (i.e., perfectly) for real life. It's a very niche film with a very small audience who can truly relate to it and understand it. The movie does make for a good directorial debut for Helen Hunt and the cast is pretty decent. Still, it's hard to truly recommend this film based on its lack of sweetness and overall lack of true heart.
A lovely, satisfying adult romance - Rating: 4/5
Helen Hunt's first motion picture directorial outing is an imperfect but emotionally satisfying work. I can't think of a recent romantic comedy that even comes close to the honesty of the feelings portrayed here.
This is not one of those movies that throw the characters into unreal situations where they then proceed to act as no on in real life would act. The scene in which Ben breaks up with April (I'm not giving anything away -- it's in the trailer) is so genuine in the way it shows April reaching out to Ben for comfort even as he's breaking her heart. It takes a mature storyteller and two excellent actors (Hunt and Broderick) to get that right. Colin Firth is pitch-perfect as April's other love interest. Bette Midler has a few "Divine Miss M" moments, where she is clearly "performing" (i.e., delivering lines as "lines" rather than as credibly spontaneous dialog) but even those moments work since it is consistent with her talk-show-host character who is so used to being "on." Ben Shenkman is superb. Even Salman Rushdie's odd appearance works.
As a 40-something year old woman, I have watched with some dismay as more and more movies and TV shows focus on the purported need of mature women to have biological children, often dismissing adoption as an equally-rewarding choice. Although this film starts there, it goes in far more interesting directions with a delightfully surprising ending.
My only quibble with the film is that the time frames seem off, suggesting some careless editing, perhaps? April frequently comments on how much time has passed from one event to another and. frankly, it doesn't add up in a coherent way.
