Movie Description
The move from actor to director can be a difficult one, but actress Helen Hunt makes the transition seem effortless with THEN SHE FOUND ME. Hunt, who also produced and cowrote the film, plays April Epner, a down-on-her-luck schoolteacher who longs to have a child. April's chances of bringing a baby into the world are diminished when her husband, Ben (Matthew Broderick), leaves her, and more bad news follows when her adoptive mother dies. The beleaguered April subsequently forms an unexpected bond with her real mother, the overbearing TV host Bernice (Bette Midler), and takes tentative steps towards motherhood with a new man in her life, the bumbling Frank (Colin Firth).
Hunt's film, which is based on the novel of the same name by Elinor Lipman, is likely to win over fans of classic rom-coms such as WHEN HARRY MET SALLY and YOU'VE GOT MAIL. At its heart the film poses some thoughtful observations on what a late-30s woman goes through when she is facing a possibly childless future. But Hunt also stirs some generous scoops of humor into the plot, providing light relief from her central character's plight, and also demonstrating her range as a writer/director. The cast members are uniformly excellent throughout, with Firth and Hunt giving strong performances that are helped along by a supporting cast that provides most of the comic relief. Hunt even finds time to provide a small role for the writer Salman Rushdie, who plays a doctor.
| Credits | | Producer: | Christine Vachon, Connie Tavel, Helen Hunt, Pamela Koffler | | Cast: | Ben Shankman, Bette Midler, Colin Firth, Helen Hunt, Matthew Broderick |
Editorial Reviews
"[U]nexpectedly sharp, light and appealing, a testament to Hunt's skills behind the camera."
Los Angeles Times - Carina Chocano (04/25/2008)
"The movie is unusually sensitive to the anxieties around adoption....Ms. Hunt takes every opportunity to avoid easy comic schtick and cutesy-poo sentimentality in an effort to make her characters act and sound like real people."
New York Times - Stephen Holden (04/25/2008)
"What is especially impressive is how Hunt consistently creates dry, deadpan hilarity from the messy stuff of real life....Clearly committed to the material, Hunt extracts exquisitely subtle performances from her accomplished cast..."
Box Office - Chad Greene (05/01/2008)
"The characters are given enough space to demonstrate that they have at least two and a half dimensions....Hunt's performance is terrific..." -- Grade: B
Entertainment Weekly - Clark Collis (05/01/2008)
"[T]here are some emotional insights in the mother-daughter relationship at the heart of the film....Hunt draws some good performances from the cast and wisely chose a low-key personal story for her directorial debut."
USA Today - Claudia Puig (05/09/2009)
3 stars out of 5 -- "This is a decidedly mature comedy drama, with Hunt on form both as director and star."
Empire - Anna Smith (10/01/2008)
"Hunt and her co-writers have created a bittersweet comedy which treads similar ground to SIDEWAYS or AS GOOD AS IT GETS, but which offers a fresh feminised perspective on mid-life melancholia."
Sight and Sound - Catherine Wheatley (10/01/2008)
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