Then She Found Me

Helen Hunt, Colin Firth, Bette Midler, Matthew Broderick, Ben Shenkman

Dir. Helen Hunt
Scr. Alice Arlen, Victor Levin & Helen Hunt

I have been seeing a lot of action movies of late, so welcomed the chance to catch an emotional chick-flick-ish dramedy. Well, that’s what I thought I was seeing. Then She Found Me is despairingly lacking in humour. I was a victim of a highly misleading trailer. But all is not bleak. This film has a shaky plot but some very good acting. It’s nicely shot – kudos to first time director Hunt. And, errrrrrrrrrrrrr, that’s about it. Not a great film, but not quite a train wreck either.

Then She Found Me is the story of April Epner (Hunt), a primary school teacher desperate for children of her own, who in the space of what seems like just a few minutes is left by her husband, has her adoptive mother pass away, develops a crush on the father of one of her pupils, and discovers the identity of her birth mother. There’s a lot going on. And even more to come. April finds out she is pregnant, her hopeless ex the father, and tries to juggle her new condition, her ex, her new suitor and a highly egotistical new mother. There are a variety of twists and turns in this film (none of which I will spoil), not all particularly realistic or welcomed, although we do get to see the characters in all sorts of dire straits.

What stayed with me after seeing this film was some of the highly unconvincing behaviour the writers imposed on these characters, and some just plain bad characterisation. Broderick, playing April’s ex Ben, was an unlikeable, unbelievable character. Firth, as April’s new love interest Frank, was (for the most part) completely too good to be true and at times very one-dimensional. Midler, April’s birth mother Bernice, for parts of the film was not much more than a caricature. Hunt herself had more to work with, but even the dour and depressing April was simply too much to bear at times.

I think the actors deserve a great deal of credit for drawing out of these badly written characters at least some humour, humanity and realism. Broderick simply didn’t have enough to do, but what he did do was solid. I pitied his character – so immature and emotionally stunted – and he managed this well. Midler was mostly on fine form, playing the bravado of Bernice with ease, and the more flawed side of her character with compassion. The interplay between Midler and Hunt took a while to get started but, when it did, they complemented each other quite well. Firth was in danger of slipping completely into the type-cast role he usually plays, but thanks to a couple of great scenes, really did surprise and impress. The scene in which he gives Hunt’s character a good telling off is perhaps the best I’ve ever seen from him. I’ve always suspected there was more to Firth than brooding good looks. Hunt’s performance is a mixed bag. She’s not a particularly likeable lead character, but this isn’t necessarily essential to a good film. More fatal is the fact that Hunt’s April didn’t always ring true as a person, even a highly flawed and confused one, and this annoyed me. Therefore, she annoyed me. Some slightly surreal casting resulted in Salman Rushdie playing Hunt’s gynaecologist which was, in a word, intriguing.

Then She Found Me wasn’t a terrible film, but it wasn’t great either. I don’t regret seeing it, but I don’t recommend it. If you want a real tear-jerker of a dramedy buy some tissues and rent Terms of Endearment or Beaches instead.