Could someone please bring this capable actress a milkshake?
“Then She Found Me” is neither a predictable nor an ordinary romantic comedy.
The movie reflects the quirky intelligence of Helen Hunt who directed and
starred in it and had a strong hand in both the production and the screenplay.
She has created a character driven by desperation as she explores every option
for beating the biological time clock. There is humor in this movie, but it is
more ironic wit than the visual joke variety. Helen Hunt is serious about this
problem.
April Epner
(Ms. Hunt) is a teacher who comes home after a day of Pre-K immersion to her new
husband Ben (Matthew Broderick) who is himself stuck permanently in the shoes of
an adolescent. It is no surprise then that on this day he tells April that their
marriage is a mistake, that he is leaving. After one last frantic sex session,
he does just that. Since Helen Hunt and Matthew Broderick are as unlikely a
pairing as any casting director could conjure, we don’t believe for a second
that they could have stood each other in real life.
Although Mr.
Perfect appears immediately in the wonderful form of Frank (Colin Firth) theirs
will be no easy path to happiness. April is sour about life’s timetables and
indignities. She isn’t easy to love. Frank, who is a loving dad to his two
children, is frightened of anyone who might remotely want to replace his dead
wife. He is edgy and jumpy. So is April. Each of them is wounded and the nicest
part of the movie is watching them work their way awkwardly toward each other
through his love of his children.
April resists
all entreaties by friends and family to adopt a child. Adopted herself, she is
determined to experience the natural order of things by herself and doesn’t
quite believe the chorus of friends who tell her that love is love whether by
adoption or birth. Enter Salman Rushdie (yes, that one) as an obstetrician who
leads her through the process of terminating a pregnancy that began with Ben and
then ushers her through the lonely path of artificial insemination. Needless to
say, April is no bargain these days. She’s scared and miserable.
Just as her
adoptive mother dies, April’s biological mother appears. Bernice (Bette Midler)
is a local TV talk show host who mercifully underplays her ego in her new
relationship with her daughter. With an uncharacteristically gentle touch,
Midler breaks through the gloom to bestow some cheer on the scene.
It is
understandable that Helen Hunt would choose to appear without makeup in her
effort to be an ordinary person, but not quite so understandable that she could
be as thin and gaunt as she is here. It’s not possible to watch her for two
hours without worrying throughout about her well being. Credit Helen Hunt with
originality and sensitivity, but please, could someone bring this capable
actress a milkshake?
Copyright (c) Illusion