Then She Found Me

Plot synopsis:
Deeply religious April Epner, a 39-year-old Brooklyn elementary school teacher, finds her life derailed by a series of events over which she has no control. Her husband Ben abruptly leaves her, her abrasive adoptive mother Trudy passes away the following day, and shortly after she is contacted by Alan, a representative of Bernice Graves, the flamboyant host of a local talk show, who introduces herself as her biological mother.
Although intrigued by Bernice's claim that she was fathered by Steve McQueen, April initially resists her efforts to forge a relationship. At the same time, she finds herself attracted to Frank, the divorced father of one of her students, as the two get to know each other via lengthy telephone conversations. For their first date he escorts her to a party at Bernice's apartment.
Complications arise when April discovers she is pregnant, the result of a quick and clumsy coupling with Ben on the kitchen floor just before he left her. April has longed to have a child all her life and is delighted with the news, but is confused and upset by Ben's sudden return, Frank's hasty departure (when he discovers April and Ben had a "quickie" after visiting the gynecologist), and Bernice's insistent attempts to create a bond between them. Not helping the situation is the discovery Bernice voluntarily put her up for adoption a full year after her birth and not three days later at the urging of her parents, according to the scenario she initially presented. When April miscarries, her brother Freddy tries to counsel her, but ultimately she must rely on her deep-rooted faith to deal with the betrayals she has suffered not only at the hands of those she trusted but by the God she worships as well. Eventually she offers reconciliation and forgiveness to Bernice, if Bernice will agree to "buy" a baby for her. Bernice agrees, and then Frank forgives April when she goes to him to apologize for her behavior. Later, the ending shows that April could not have the baby which Bernice paid for, so she adopted a little Chinese girl.

Tags: romantic

Review:
The talent here is undeniable: Helen Hunt, Colin Firth, Matthew Broderick, Bette Midler.
You're not thinking about April Epner, you're thinking, "Hmmhow could Helen Hunt change her look?" Similarly, Bette Midler is never convincing as the character she is playing.
This film ignored all of those real questions and just plopped Colin Firth, the perfect man, and Bette Midler, STAR, in as phony, bogus attempts to stir up some kind of a plot.
Seen at a September 2007 Toronto Film Festival screening.First time director, Helen Hunt, said this movie was 10 years in the making.
Had she struck closer to that thread, the movie would have a tighter, more focused feel.As it is, the outer reach of her film, a foray into her intimate, romantic relationships, with the intent of colouring her main character (April) instead seems like an untrained hand that colours outside of the lines.
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.
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.
April Epner (Helen Hunt) is married to fellow schoolteacher Ben Green (Matthew Broderick) and longs to have a baby before her advancing age prevents her dream.
April's busy life implodes: Ben has decided he doesn't like his life and leaves April, April's mother dies, April meets Frank (Colin Firth) a recently divorced writer and father of two children, and April is contacted by a man who can put April in touch with her birth mother - popular TV talk show hostess Bernice Graves (Bette Midler).
The lives these people are living are hard to watch, but you can't look away.I'm a cinematography girl myself and this movie doesn't have stunning panoramic views or killer photography, but it does have great character development and a cohesive plot.Helen Hunt kills in the title role and as a director.
I saw the trailers, and though they did not immediately attract me, I decided to give this movie a go.In her late thirtees, schoolteacher April Epner (Helen Hunt) - seeking to be pregnant and be a biological mother - marries Benjamin (Matthew Broderick), but things do not work out her way and they saperate.
What is so great about THEN SHE FOUND ME is what Helen Hunt has directed, written and acted, in taking her audience on a journey with a character which seems so real to what many friends today are experiencing in wanting happiness and a self fulfilling life, after experiencing heartache.
I want to praise Helen Hunt for directing this unpretentious character study of people with real problems at a time when big budget super hero movies with all plot and no character development are the mainstream.Unfortunately, I felt that Bette Midler and Helen Hunt were acting in 2 separate films as the mother and daughter.
Midler seemed to be acting in a big budget over-the-top romantic comedy while Hunt was understated and subtle as a complicated lady in a small movie that was a fine character study.
An example was the fine actor Colin Firth yelling and cussing toward the end of the film after having been so contained the rest of the film.I do want to again compliment Helen Hunt for this sincere and intelligent film but feel that it was quite uneven at times.
April (Helen Hunt), a schoolteacher married to fellow instructor, Ben (Matthew Broderick), wants to become a mother above everything else.
Then, unbelievably, April learns she is pregnant, with Ben's child and that her birth mother, Bernice (Bette Midler), a television talk show hostess, wants to enter her life again.
Hunt herself gives a beautifully nuanced turn as the good-hearted but confused April while Broderick does a great job as the repugnant Ben. Midler is also a pleasure to watch as a woman with a thousand secrets.
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.
I love women who age gracefully and Helen Hunt is certainly one of them - letting all of her wrinkles become part of her character but honestly why on earth would she try to play a 39 year old woman when she is 46?
I know 39 is not exactly young but I don't know any 39 year old with as many deep wrinkles as Helen Hunt - I just think it puts across a really bad image for women - whiny, desperate and ugly.Also, what on earth was Colin Firth doing in that film?
Also their relationship was completely ridiculous and why did he keep saying she was so beautiful when clearly she was ugly inside and out?And poor Matthew Broderick - made to look like a blubbering fool - has it really come to this for him?The only highight of the film was the wonderful Babs but she just kept getting treated appallingly by the god awful Helen Hunt character.
Along the way the film gets to comment on child abandonment (an American variation of Mike Leigh's Secrets and Lies) with a divine Bette Midler as talk show host Bernice (alleged mother to Hunt's April) only recently revealing herself ("I'm very verbal during sex") to April, an over-burdened, recently separated school teacher.
This film is directed by Helen Hunt, which makes sense, as she plays the 39 year-old "love interest" of Matthew Broderick and Colin Firth.
April Epner, a nearly 40-year old Jewish woman, is going through a crisis in her life.Her husband Ben leaves her and her adoptive mother dies.Then a talk show host called Bernice Graves is introduced to her as her biological mother.And she meets a new man named Frank at the school she teaches his two children.Then She Found Me (2007) is the directorial debut by actress Helen Hunt.She gives a great performance in the lead as April Epner.Bette Midler is terrific as Bernice Graves.Colin Firth is marvelous as Frank.Matthew Broderick, who turned 50 a couple of months ago, does very nice work as Ben Green.Ben Shenkman is great as Dr. Freddy Epner.Salman Rushdie, who is better known as a writer, does very good work as Dr. Samani.Lynn Cohen plays April's adoptive mother Trudy, and she's very good.As themselves in this movie are seen Janeane Garofalo, Tim Robbins and Edie Falco.This is a nice, yet flawed movie.The drama of it works pretty good, it's quite moving.But it doesn't go out to make some movie history.It doesn't succeed in rising above mediocrity.But it's a pretty nice little movie that proves Helen Hunt can also direct..
I don't like predictable, romantic movies.This movie, in spite of Helen Hunt in the lead part (sorry, Helen), delivers a lovely story, very human, very shot through with vulnerability in the face of reality.Helen delivers one of the most tender performances in her career (not that I am familiar with all of her work; but from what I've seen, she kind of comes across as a tough little cookie in a stunted sorta way, right?)...
And no, she doesn't abandon that toughness - that essence that Jack Nickelson captures in "As Good as It Gets": she says what she means, means what she says; something tells me HH is worth knowing: I do believe this is one of HH's strengths (as uncomfortable as it sometimes makes ME feel).The profound Jewish tale narrated in the beginning (rather shocking, and to me, mysteriously cruel), then fleshed out at the end (thank God) is one of this movie's attractions to me.I also find the outlandish behavior by its characters not unrealistic.
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.
The cast helps in the positive perception of the story: Helen Hunt is here April, a New York schoolteacher, an almost forty year old woman, coming to terms with difficult situations and with a constantly frustrated desire of motherhood.
Helen Hunt is still a great actress, I enjoyed watching her in this movie as much as I did in "As Good As It Gets" with Jack Nicholson!!!
Bette Midler, Colin Firth, and Matthew Broderick were also showed their greatness in this movie.
Played by first-time director Helen Hunt, April is a 39-year-old elementary school teacher in Brooklyn whose biological clock has been ticking so loudly it's been keeping her up at night.
On the positive side, though, the acting is good (why have we seen so little of Hunt on screen since she won her Oscar fourteen years ago?); the characters skew a little older than your typical romantic comedy figures; the story ends on a tremendously sweet note, and there's just enough genuine humor and charm in the movie to make it worth a look-see.One side note: the movie makes a continuity error by claiming that April was conceived in 1966 when McQueen was off in China filming "The Sand Pebbles," but later we're told she was conceived when her mother was at a drive-in showing of "Bullitt," which wasn't even released until 1968!.
Then She Found Me. In Helen Hunt's feature film directorial debut, Hunt plays April Epner, a 39-year old school teacher who wishes to have a baby of her own but is aware of her biological clock running out of time.
While coping with all the changes, she also meets a handsome divorcé Frank (Colin Firth), with whom a new relationship might be possible, but there are still more surprises waiting for her.I was worried the movie could turn out to be just another clichéd rom-com, but luckily Hunt and the other writers didn't go for the easiest laughs when adapting Elinor Lipman's novel for the screen.
Bette Midler's flamboyant antics work fine when contrasted to Hunt's more reserved, insecure protagonist, and while Colin Firth's British charm is closer to ordinary screen romance, he knows how to handle a role like this.
When I borrowed this film from my local library I was hoping it would live up to the abilities of its promising cast (Helen Hunt, Bette Midler, Colin Firth & Matthew Broderick), and yet it took me a while to actually sit down and view it.
Hunt proves to be quite a competent director as she tells a charming story set in a small town about a young woman (who was adopted by a Jewish lady) who desperately wants to have a baby but things go haywire when her husband leaves her, her adopt mother passes away and her eccentric birth mother unexpectedly shows up.
Casting herself along side Colin Firth, Bette Midler and Matthew Broderick, Hunt's film follows the uneasy emotional path to fulfilment of April Epner {Hunt}.
In early 1998,actress Helen Hunt seemed to be about to become into a big Hollywood star.After having won an Oscar and Golden Globe as Best Actress in a Leading Role for the movie As Good as It Gets,and an Emmy (not to mention having achieved another Golden Globe nomination) for the TV series Mad About You,her rising career was assured.However,after some commercial Hollywood movies (like the conventional drama Pay It Forward and the mediocre romantic comedy What Women Want),her career only limited to a pair of roles on independent movies,where she showed her talent was intact,but that she never became on the Hollywood star she seemed she was going to be.I have a theory to explain that : Hunt was more interested in exploring her talent than in selling herself to the fame many actors ambition to.As a possible proof of that,we have the movie Then She Found Me,which also represents her first work as a director and as a co-screenwriter.This movie resulted to be a humble but entertaining and very interesting melodrama with emotive details,credible characters,a honest romance and solid performances.The synopsis from this movie could suggest this is an "ethnic comedy" like My Big Fat Greek Wedding or Moonstruck.However,the screenplay from this movie is much more subtle and delicate,because besides of avoiding the characters to become into crude racial caricatures,it has the patience to developing them at a calm (but never boring) rhythm,at the same time it avoids the clichés from family drama and romantic comedy.The best attribute from this movie is that everything seems natural on it.Hunt brings an excellent performance,and although the rest of the cast is also solid,this movie clearly rests on her shoulders.There are a few fails on this movie.For one sight,some of the dialogs feel a bit forced and,although I appreciated the delicacy from this movie,there were some moments in which that made it seem a little bit bland.When we are in front of the debut of an actor as a director,the result is unpredictable.On some occasions,the result is a pathetic exercise of ego.But,on other occasions,there are actors who show genuine talent as directors because they find a good tone and rhythm for conducing a story and they can extract solid performances from the cast.Fortunately,Then She Found Me belongs to the second style,and I hope to see more movies directed by Hunt,because she shows potential.I can recommend this movie with confidence,because although it is not excellent,it kept me very interested..
It's more intelligent, heart-felt and down to earth, despite its somewhat eccentric and off-putting side.Telling the story of soon-to-be-forty, recently-married-and-then-promptly-abandoned April Epner (Helen Hunt) as she tries to get over her separation, her adopted mother's death and her last wish that she have a child, the directorial debut of Hunt isn't exactly a walk in the park affair.
Again, both actresses do a fine job and manage to craft something memorable out of the script, but despite all the good it does, you still get the feeling that a lot is left unexplored; there's comedy but very little heart, so when Hunt tries to make her mother resonate beyond her comical façade, the move falls flat.In the end Then She Found Me comes down to the question of trust; who we often bestow that trust upon, and why when we know we should be putting it in a much safer box.
My vote is for "Then She Found Me" to win Best Picture, with Helen Hunt as Best Director and Best Actress, Colin Firth as Best Supporting Actor, and Bette Midler as Best Supporting Actress..
First of All Helen Hunt Directed the movie, so her acting got a little on low, she did what she wanted to do without any orders, this have caused some little acting problems: Fast and strange Dialogue lines, strange acting behavior of Colin Firh although his British accent did the price, but his vulgarity was the thing i didn't like (Those strange bad words,that clownish temperament.
I think Helen Hunt is to old to act in her own directed movie.
For some reason, Helen Hunt decided to rewrite the story and take a likable heroine, who found true love unexpectedly with the school librarian and turn her into an anguished character who struggled with an immature husband (Broderick)who did not appear in the book,a divorced father (Firth), who did not appear in the book, a pregnancy which did not occur in the book, and adopting an Asian child, which also did not occur in the book.
Helen Hunt is a beautiful woman, as Colin Firth tells her, but she looks strained and worried all the time.
Up until almost half an hour into the film, the entire picture feels rushed with incident and things suddenly happening to April (Hunt), as she gets married, gets separated/sort-of-divorced, her adopted Jewish mother dies, and she maybe falls in love.
All she'd need is a bird going to the bathroom on her head to put the icing on the cake.What the story then develops as is how April deals with the men in her life- her new love played in the best performance by Colin Firth- and her ex played by Matthew Broderick, who may be the father of 39 year-old April's first possible baby.
The film has an uneven tone, is oblivious to how pathetic most of its characters are, never settles on what it's about, is littered with failed attempts at humor and wraps things up with a lovers' reconciliation that's turns into a powerful argument for celibate solitude.April Epner (Helen Hunt) is a 39 year old Jewish school teacher who desperately wants kids.
With Colin Firth and Bette Middler, two of my all-time favorite actors, in prominent roles, I had high expectations that were tempered somewhat by the lead being played by Helen Hunt.
Even Bette Midler, who is April's biological mother, shows restraint in a role that would have been wrong played by someone else.This film debut shows Helen Hunt in a dual capacity.
He has his own demons about his recent divorce from a woman that abandoned her children and left him sleep deprived and annoyed.Enter Bette Midler, a somewhat pathological biological mother to her whom she finds after her adopted mother passes.In the end Helen will choose if she wants to keep contact with her mother, which man she needs in her life, and the decisions that she needs to make to procreate, enough to get away from her own demons from her childhood.Excellent film, genuine emotion, and well crafted characters that you can feel yourself relating to.