Cuando ella me encontró

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.

If "Then She Found Me" got any real notice when it came out, it certainly passed by me. I didn't know what to expect when I chose the streaming video version, mainly because I've always liked Helen Hunt, and she's backed by a pretty impressive cast. Although it's certainly no blockbuster, the film is well worth seeing. Since it is immediately disclosed, I don't feel I'm spoiling anything in saying that Hunt plays the part of an adopted woman whose marriage at age 39 fails almost immediately because her groom (Matthew Broderick) is completely immature. Hunt's character (April Hepner) is unexpectedly confronted by her birth mother (Bette Midler) and also finds herself in a potentially romantic relationship with Frank (Colin Firth), a single father with two children whose wife left the family to travel around the world with her lover. April desperately wants to have a child, and time is quickly running out. Complications ensue on several fronts -- with her birth mother, with the husband from whom she is separated, and with Frank and Frank's kids. Hunt directed this film and co-wrote the script. Although she's a little old to be 39 again, she's still slim, beautiful, a skilled comic actress and believable in a serious, emotionally wrenching role. I can't give the movie more than a 6 but I liked it. The ending, which I won't describe, is plausible but a little too abrupt. However, I'll concede that filling the gap could not have been done quickly. And that's a potent argument for ending it without an explanation as they chose to do.

I popped into the theater one night because I happened to be driving by and had some time to myself. I hadn't seen a movie in a while and had no idea what was playing or what "Then She Found Me" was about, but 'Colin Firth' and 'Helen Hunt' caught my eye so I figured I couldn't go wrong.

I was expecting your typical light-hearted rom-com, but instead found myself engrossed in a very moving and believable story, thanks to the marvelous acting of Firth and Hunt. Still romantic and still on the lighter side, but with nice balance of despair and heartache to remind you that life sucks sometimes.

In my humble opinion, however, Matthew Broderick came across as a bit blank and not quite believable as the "one person in the world" that could make Helen Hunt do anything. And quite frankly (I know I'll get slammed for this), Bette Middler bore my socks off. Does she ever play any other type of character? It was like "Beaches" all over again. That being said, Firth and Hunt were still able carry out a damn good movie.

"Then She Found Me" is an insult to the intelligence. At least with the "American Pie" and "Saw" franchises you know what you're in for. A cast like this leads one to expect some degree of quality -- or at least coherence. Wrong! Helen Hunt is an unsmiling, self-absorbed, masochistically willing victim. Matthew Broderick is meant to be a feckless Peter Pan but doesn't convey a scintilla of that. Bette Midler is woefully miscast in a role that completely ignores her comedic and dramatic talents. Colin Firth's character -- also grumpy and funereal in demeanor -- acts and reacts entirely without plausible motivation. John Benjamin Hickey flits around enigmatically like some latter-day Tinker Bell. It's as if all the characters were just put in front of the camera without directorial discussion of the movie's message, plot or intent. I'm not sure it's fair to blame Hunt (as director) because the screenplay is unrelievedly lousy. Not only is it poorly plotted, the "cute" dialog is in fact just plain dumb. This film will appeal only to those willing to suspend even subatomic levels of disbelief.

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