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Then She Found Me (2007) More at IMDbPro »

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29 out of 43 people found the following comment useful :-
Hooray for Helen Hunt, 15 April 2008

Author: James J Cremin (jjcremin@yahoo.com) from Los Angeles, CA

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.

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19 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :-
Another Biological Clock Ticks…But Hunt Provides Heart and Conviction to Her Directorial Debut, 5 May 2008

Author: Ed Uyeshima from San Francisco, CA, USA

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.

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15 out of 21 people found the following comment useful :-
Deserves a look, 18 April 2008

Author: wxgirl55 from Canada

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.

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29 out of 53 people found the following comment useful :-
Deliciously Human, 19 December 2007

Author: opiumeyedlove from United States

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.

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8 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
And Then What?, 4 May 2008

Author: Joseph (moutonbear@videotron.ca) from Montreal

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.

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8 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
a grounded in reality chick flick that is terrific, 7 July 2008

Author: soutexmex from Austin, Texas

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.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
A wonderfully moving picture., 13 September 2008

Author: stammie from Australia

A wonderfully moving picture. Very real and certainly deserving of higher rating than depicted. The story is real, the acting is poignant and heartfelt. Hunt, Midler, Broderick & Firth are superb. I watched it two nights in a row. This movie is for everyone who knows what it's like to yearn for children and for everyone who has become a parent. As the events unfold, you become attached to the characters and feel for each individual one of them. There are no favorites here, as each actor holds your attention equally in their respective roles. Such a beautiful film. Congratulations go out to Hunt and the whole team. It is so refreshing to watch a movie which has something to say.

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4 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Pleasant directorial debut from Helen Hunt, 6 August 2008
Author: AdnanZ from thecinemajournal.blogspot.com

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

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5 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
An unmarried woman, 2 June 2008

Author: jotix100 from New York

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Consider poor April Epner, she gets married late in life to Ben, a man that will prove emotionally unstable. April's desire to be a mother consumes her. She realizes her chance for conceiving is almost nil after Ben leaves her; this man is a mamma's boy, if ever there was one. What is April to do? As if it weren't enough, April receives a blow when her adoptive mother dies suddenly. She learns the hard way about who her real mother is: an egotistical television hostess. At the same time, April, who is a school teacher, begins seeing a single father, Frank, who seems to be the perfect man for her. Is it too much for April to hope for some happiness in her own life? Watching the last frames of the film one realizes that all what she wanted does indeed comes true.

Helen Hunt, the director and co-adapter of the novel by Elinor Lipman, does good work with her first assignment behind the camera. After all, Ms. Hunt has been behind the action for a great part of her life. She proves she has a voice to be considered, even if this effort doesn't satisfy as a whole.

Ms. Hunt, who appears as Helen, had the tough task of being in two places, something than even more experienced people have not been able to pull. Her April shows a resolute individual who was born to be a mother, yet nature had a way for denying her wish. Matthew Broderick, who is seen as Ben, the boyish man, makes an impression for bringing that character to life. Colin Firth, a distinguished presence in any film, plays Frank, the man who cares for April. Even Bette Midler, who is April's biological mother, shows restraint in a role that would have been wrong played by someone else.

This film debut shows Helen Hunt in a dual capacity. Ms. Hunt deserves another chance and one could only hope for a good source for the material of her next project.

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5 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Helen Hunt is "Mad About A Baby", 26 April 2008

Author: screenwriter-14 from United States

It's been so long since the magic of Helen Hunt in MAD ABOUT YOU, that watching her in THEN SHE FOUND ME, which is a title that suits so many stories in this film, is a delight to see her intelligent comedic talents displayed again. From the opening scenes to the last heart warming one, Ms. Hunt brings a strength of character and intelligence to her attempts for finding happiness in her life. Wonderful scenes of New York and Brooklyn, with a cast that is superlative. Colin Firth and Bette Midler work their characters and stories with both humor, and a tinge of sorrow, with dramatic effects. What is so great about THEN SHE FOUND ME is what Helen Hunt has directed, written and acted, in taking her audience on a journey with a character which seems so real to what many friends today are experiencing in wanting happiness and a self fulfilling life, after experiencing heartache. Bravo, Helen Hunt, we are still, and always will be, "Mad About You..."

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