Then She Found Me (C+ or 2.5/4 stars)
A midlife crisis has struck schoolteacher, April Epner in 'Then She Found Me', a dramedy starring & directed by Helen Hunt. Not only has April's new husband (Matthew Broderick) left her, but her adoptive mom dies, & her biological mom decides to contact her after 39 yrs. This is a slight film -- it comes, it goes. The performances are good. There's nothing groundbreaking; visually or thematically. But it rings true & offers some nice moments.
Ben (Broderick) is "not comfortable with being married" to April. And with her adopted mother now dead, knowledge that her conceiving a child is virtually impossible, & her birth mother trying to contact her, she finds herself at quite the low ebb. Bernice Graves (Bette Midler), a local talk show host, is the woman claiming to be April's real mom. She wants to make up for 39 yrs. of lost bonding. But she couldn't have picked a worse time to pry into April's life. And after Bernice divulges a series of lies about her own past, it seems that April can only find solace in the arms of the divorced dad of one of her students, Frank (Colin Firth). But just when she finally strikes a chord with Bernice, and just when thing are looking great for her & Frank, her life starts to crumble again. A session of 'goodbye sex' with Ben confuses her. And the aftermath of this sexual encounter provides some melodramatic moments for April & all involved.
'Then She Found Me' is a small melodrama that will not resonate with its audiences long after its ending. But at least it ends on a good note. SO many movies start strong, fizzle out, and are more disappointing because of it. 'This' films starts flat, becomes trite ... but then settles-in & ends very truthfully. Things occur to the major characters that feel completely real, & truthful to life. There is intelligence & subtlety in the last half hour that I wasn't expecting (seeing the trajectory from the 1st half of the film). Issues of: biological clocks ticking, in vitro, & adoption are handled with surprising straightforward-ness, ease & appropriate resolution.
The cast is adequate. Hunt is excellent near the end when she's deciding (quite deliberately) NOT to pray before a life altering event takes place. Her faith is tested; and she's very moving. But overall, she's overwhelmingly dour ... playing a role we've seen from her many times before. Bette Midler is stellar. She may be bold & brash, but it was very much needed in this movie, at times. In her quieter moments, she's just as effective as when she's shrill. The best performance comes from Colin Firth as the divorced dad who feels like he's in a never-ending cycle of 'being hung out to dry'. I've never seen him more emotive before.
There's a level of absurdity going on throughout the proceedings. But, it's the kind of absurdity that could happen to any one of us if the right (or wrong) sequence of events occur. Not only is the undercurrent of absurdity present, but it' also a film directed more so towards possible adopted people, and/or mothers. That's not to say a movie about motherhood won't be appealing to guys like me. I dealt with it just fine. But 'Then She Found Me' does not have a broad audience. The movie is warm, winsome in the end, but has it's contrivances along the way. More disconcerting, you'd never know it was Helen Hunt directing it.
Ben (Broderick) is "not comfortable with being married" to April. And with her adopted mother now dead, knowledge that her conceiving a child is virtually impossible, & her birth mother trying to contact her, she finds herself at quite the low ebb. Bernice Graves (Bette Midler), a local talk show host, is the woman claiming to be April's real mom. She wants to make up for 39 yrs. of lost bonding. But she couldn't have picked a worse time to pry into April's life. And after Bernice divulges a series of lies about her own past, it seems that April can only find solace in the arms of the divorced dad of one of her students, Frank (Colin Firth). But just when she finally strikes a chord with Bernice, and just when thing are looking great for her & Frank, her life starts to crumble again. A session of 'goodbye sex' with Ben confuses her. And the aftermath of this sexual encounter provides some melodramatic moments for April & all involved.
'Then She Found Me' is a small melodrama that will not resonate with its audiences long after its ending. But at least it ends on a good note. SO many movies start strong, fizzle out, and are more disappointing because of it. 'This' films starts flat, becomes trite ... but then settles-in & ends very truthfully. Things occur to the major characters that feel completely real, & truthful to life. There is intelligence & subtlety in the last half hour that I wasn't expecting (seeing the trajectory from the 1st half of the film). Issues of: biological clocks ticking, in vitro, & adoption are handled with surprising straightforward-ness, ease & appropriate resolution.
The cast is adequate. Hunt is excellent near the end when she's deciding (quite deliberately) NOT to pray before a life altering event takes place. Her faith is tested; and she's very moving. But overall, she's overwhelmingly dour ... playing a role we've seen from her many times before. Bette Midler is stellar. She may be bold & brash, but it was very much needed in this movie, at times. In her quieter moments, she's just as effective as when she's shrill. The best performance comes from Colin Firth as the divorced dad who feels like he's in a never-ending cycle of 'being hung out to dry'. I've never seen him more emotive before.
There's a level of absurdity going on throughout the proceedings. But, it's the kind of absurdity that could happen to any one of us if the right (or wrong) sequence of events occur. Not only is the undercurrent of absurdity present, but it' also a film directed more so towards possible adopted people, and/or mothers. That's not to say a movie about motherhood won't be appealing to guys like me. I dealt with it just fine. But 'Then She Found Me' does not have a broad audience. The movie is warm, winsome in the end, but has it's contrivances along the way. More disconcerting, you'd never know it was Helen Hunt directing it.