Then She Found Me (2008) Movie Information:

Then She Found Me (2008) Directed by: Helen Hunt Then She Found Me (2008) Written by: Helen Hunt, Elinor Lipman Then She Found Me (2008) Cast: Helen Hunt, Woody Harrelson, Diane Keaton, Colin Firth, Matthew Broderick, Bette Midler

Then She Found Me (2008) U.S. Distributor: ThinkFilm Then She Found Me (2008) U.K. Distributor: Not available at this time

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Then She Found Me (2008) Synopsis:

In Then She Found Me, Hunt will play a Philadelphia schoolteacher hitting a midlife crisis. In quick succession, her husband leaves, her adoptive mother dies and her real one, an eccentric talkshow host, materializes and turns her life upside down as she begins a courtship with the father (Harrelson) of one of her students.

Then She Found Me (2008) Movie Review:

After winning an Academy Award for her performance in As Good As It Gets in 1997, Helen Hunt has only appeared in a handful of films, most notably in with Mel Gibson in What Women Want.

She now returns to the screen not only with the lead role, but as writer, producer, and director of her personal project Then She Found Me, which is based off the novel by Eilnor Lipman.

The indie film follows April Epner (Helen Hunt), who is a 39 year-old kindergarten teacher that is married to Ben (Matthew Broderick) and wants to have a baby before she gets too old. On the other hand, Ben is no longer happy with the married life and leaves April and moves back home with his mom. Shortly afterwards, April’s mother passes away and she is then approached by a TV celebrity named Bernice Graves (Bette Midler), who claims to be her actual birth mother. Confused and questioning herself, April finds comfort in a high-strung single Brit father of two named Frank (Colin Firth).

Though nothing special, Hunt’s direction is much like her acting, to the point and effective. She gets the most out of her cast and should become more and more comfortable with the camera as she continues to direct projects. Hunt previously directed episodes of her hit sitcom Mad About You, which is contributable to her nice balance and tone of comedy and drama. As for her writing, the script is quant, but almost drenched in so many tangibles and drama for the characters, that all the characters’ ticks are never fully revealed. The novel by Lipman did not have the concept of April wanting a child; it was added by Hunt during the creative process. Hunt has stated that this is her personal-life film, in which like life the film has its ups and downs, but overall, Hunt’s work behind the scenes is commendable.

Her performance is as April is typical Helen Hunt, with her frustrated looks and direct questioning of every character in the film. Her performance is not the best of her career, but it is crucial to this film. Hunt in so way does get Bette Midler to calm down a notch to play Bernice, who claims to be her real-life mother. The film could have turned real sour, real quick, if Midler over-the-top antics had taken over, but Hunt is too smart of an artist to let that happen. Midler also plays out an exchange of dialogue with Hunt in a scene where she has no pants on, just underwear, for what reason one does not know. Matthew Broderick, who in real-life dated Hunt, does his typical fare with his small role as April’s childish husband, and Colin Firth dabbles in his usual leading man with issues role as Frank.

Then She Found Me works due to Helen Hunt’s patient choices as director. The film could be seen as a messy melodrama, but Hunt keeps the character issues balanced and gets the most out of her cast. It is interesting to see what she will choose to do next.

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Then She Found Me (2008) review written by: Bailey Henderson