Review: Then She Found Me

Then She Found Me

OPENING DATE: 05/02/2008

STUDIO: Th!nkFilm

TRAILER: Trailer

ACCOMPLICES: Official Site

The Charge

Life can change in a heartbeat.

Opening Statement

Since winning her Oscar for 1997′s As Good As It Gets, Helen Hunt has been mostly MIA. And there’s a reason for that. Sure, she has popped up every now and again in smaller films, such as Woody Allen’s The Curse of the Jade Scorpion and Emilio Estevez’ Bobby, though behind the scenes she has been writing. A lot of writing. And a lot of re-writing. The result is Then She Found Me, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Elinor Lipman. When Hunt was handed a first draft in the late ’90s, she fell in love with it instantly. And yet, she couldn’t find funding for it.

During the re-writing phase, she had divorced from actor Hank Azaria and married a producer. Even when she was able to assemble a top cast (including Matthew Broderick, Colin Firth, and Bette Midler), she still couldn’t get a green light. Then, in a case of life imitating art, she found the script’s dramatic arc soon after a baby. The heroine of Lipman’s 1991 novel, April Epner, meets her birth mother for the first time; when Hunt gave the character a dramatic need (having a baby), it made everything uniquely personal.

Arriving in theaters right before Mother’s Day in limited release, Then She Found Me is a warm, winning film about the joys of motherhood…and the haunting reality of menopause.

Facts of the Case

Hunt herself plays Epner, a 39-year-old woman working as an Elementary school teacher in N.Y.C. She has wanted a baby all her life, and now she is going through a mid-life crisis of sorts regarding her biological clock. To add to her complications, her husband Ben (Matthew Broderick, The Producers) is about to tell her their marriage is over. The next day, he inexplicably leaves with no goodbye…and then her mother passes away soon afterward.

In the midst of all this emotional turmoil, two things happen suddenly which turn April’s life inside out. First, Bernice Graves (Bette Midler, The First Wives Club), a talk-show host, contacts her with some news: she is her biological mother, and April’s conception was the result of a one-night stand with Steve McQueen. Secondly, April meets Frank (Colin Firth, Bridget Jones’ Diary), a single father of two children in her class. Apparently, his wife left him to be with “everyone else in the world,” and he soon becomes smitten with April after their first date.

The Evidence

Dismissing Then She Found Me as a simple “chick flick” would be grossly unfair. Women’s film, maybe, would be more like it. It’s also an unusually mature film, with moments of honest, awkward comedy and others which pack a dramatic punch. This is more of a drama than a romantic comedy, because the laughs present feel so utterly true-to-life (Hunt has stated this is largely autobiographical), unlike the consequent Baby Mama, which was more slapstick-oriented. The sensitive subject matter may be too feminine for some men to slog through, yet Hunt (who also co-produced and directed) gives more of the spotlight to her co-stars, particularly Firth.

That’s not to say that Hunt’s character is unlikable or simplistically written. April has reached that pivotal period in a woman’s life when if she doesn’t have a baby now, she may not have a baby at all. She has a lot of frustration built up, and getting constantly nagged by her biological mother (or so Bernice says), isn’t helping her situation one bit. Even falling in love with Frank is a doldrum, because both feel believably insecure about entering another relationship. I’m not a woman of course, though I wouldn’t be surprised if many women can identify with April’s predicament. And Hunt, displaying once again her gift for comic timing and sweet surrender, is endearing every single second.

Among her co-stars, Broderick is given almost nothing to do. Still, that doesn’t stop him from selling every scene he’s in. It’s no surprise he figures later in the story, and it’s even no bigger surprise his mind and heart will continue to battle each other. What’s refreshing is Ben’s non-existent excuses for escape and restriction. Check out the early scene in which he is determined to tell April he’s leaving, and yet he can’t put into words why he’s making his decision. Instead, he keeps telling April to take off her coat and sit down while he’s trying to figure out what to say. And when he sees what she is wearing under that coat, it impairs his judgment even more.

In fact, one of the themes of the film is impaired judgments. Midler’s character is under close scrutiny much of the time, not just for her hastiness in getting to know April, though her mind-boggling explanations as to why she hasn’t come to her until now. Add to that her questionable past history, and Bernice is a character full of inner conflict, confusing real life with the exaggerated discussions on her television show. Those who love Midler as a comedienne may very well be caught off guard at the nerving intensity she brings to her role.

As for Firth, he expands here much more than the typical romantic suitor in which we are used to seeing him. The script gives him the majority of witty lines, and he spits them out with an irresistible delivery of sarcastic contradiction. When April asks him for a date, he repeatedly says he remains committed to his plan of no more relationships, and yet keeps on complimenting her at the same time, always stopping short of returning the request. I may be wrong, but I’ve seen this scenario hundreds of times, always with the genders reversed. Here, it feels fresh, and Firth is to thank for that, due in part to his charming, thousand-watt personality.

Hunt could have made Then She Found Me as a narcissistic vanity project, and it would have been disastrous. Not only does she give her co-stars equal time to shine, but her approach to shooting the film is surprisingly universal. Very rarely do we see her alone on the screen (which would have made this more about a woman’s cloying self-meditation), and she always concentrates on what the characters are thinking via POV shots.

Along with cinematographer Peter Donahue (Junebug), Hunt has made a film that is not only lovely but lovely to look at. They don’t present New York as a simple travelogue, but rather use it as a landscape inhabited by real people with real problems. The shot of her and Midler in a park is memorable, not just in Midler’s eyebrow-raising “saying as well as doing” maneuver, but also in how we see it as if we were an observer passing by.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

Other guys may have a different opinion on the film altogether. Those who are forced to see it in the theater by their wives and girlfriends may find their initial aggravation overcoming their potential enjoyment. That shouldn’t be the case.

Here is what I want to say to them: if you had to drag your other half to see Iron Man or Speed Racer, take them to see this another night. Don’t wait until the Sex in the City movie comes out either.

Closing Statement

Helen Hunt has crafted an exceptional film full of passionate writing and idiosyncratic characterizations. The cast couldn’t be better, and I, for one, will be looking forward to more Hunt projects in the future. Then She Found Me is superb not just as a film, but also showcasing Hunt’s range in more than just acting. Highly recommended.

The Verdict
9/10

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