 Then She Found Me
Tamsin Cracknell
Directed: Helen Hunt
Starring: Helen Hunt, Bette Midler, Colin Firth, Matthew Broderick
Name five or more Helen Hunt movies. Strangely difficult, isn't it? What is it that makes this prolific and talented actress such a Hollywood wallflower?
Then She Found Me drops some hints. Hunt has written, directed, cast and starred in this dramedy, so it's fairly safe to assume that this is as closely personal a Hunt project as an audience will ever see. Regardless of critical reception, this is a biography-shaping moment for the Oscar-winning star of Mad About You.
Fans have praised it as subtle, sincere and sophisticated. Critics could accuse it of blandness, self-consciousness and messy neurosis. It's no blockbuster, but there's something charming and admirable about skinny, tired, 39-year-old April Epner (Hunt), and the way she braces herself against the onslaughts of her disastrous middle-class life.
In fact, April's life sucks. Her husband Ben (Broderick) is a childish buffoon, but he's leaving her. Her adoptive mother and religious mentor has died, prompting her to question her devout faith. Some loud-mouth daytime talk show hostess (Midler) is stalking her because, apparently, they are related. And life won't even give her the only thing that could make everything alright – a baby.
Romance in the form of Frank (Firth) looks like it may ease her worries, but ends up amplifying the chaos, as all these characters tumble together in a mess of family drama, DNA tests and almost-pregnancies.
Hunt's intention to make a light-hearted, honest rendition of author Elinor Lipman's vivid characters is clear, but you can almost feel the immense weight of her painstaking care for the project suffocating you as you watch. Just like Helen, the hard work and talent are plain to see in this film – it just needs to let its hair down a bit.
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