Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

Then She Found Me
2007

Director: Helen Hunt
Cast: Helen Hunt, Bette Midler, Colin Firth, Matthew Broderick, Ben Shenkman, Salman Rushdie, John Benjamin Hickey

Helen Hunt makes her directing debut with a sluggish and instantly forgettable romantic drama, which was adapted from Elinor Lipman's novel. She plays April, a 39-year-old teacher and an adopted Jew, who is desperate to conceive a baby before her biological clock runs out. Just then her husband decides to walk away from the marriage. To complicate things even further, her birth mother contacts her out of the blue. Hunt's attention seems to have been entirely behind the camera, because she gives one of the worst performances of her career. Throughout the film, April looks like she is suffering from a mix of dementia and indigestion. Bette Midler as the pushy and chatty mother, Colin Firth as the too-good-to-be-true single dad cum love interest and Matthew Broderick as the good-for-nothing ex-husband fare slightly better, but only because they are all typecast. Hunt attempts to lighten up the dreary story with some badly needed humour, but her comic timing is badly off.