Then She Found Me (2007)
Average Rating: 5.5/10
Reviews Counted: 116
Fresh: 58 | Rotten: 58
A threadbare story anchored by strong performances, Then She Found Me is a mostly successful directorial debut by Helen Hunt.
Average Rating: 5.3/10
Critic Reviews: 32
Fresh: 17 | Rotten: 15
A threadbare story anchored by strong performances, Then She Found Me is a mostly successful directorial debut by Helen Hunt.
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Average Rating: 3.1/5
User Ratings: 18,450
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Movie Info
Academy Award-winning actress Helen Hunt makes her feature directorial debut with this adaptation of Elinor Lipman's best-selling novel about a Philadelphia schoolteacher (Hunt) whose long-lost birth mother (Bette Midler) reappears at the very moment her daughter is careening into a midlife crisis. Abandoned by her husband (Matthew Broderick) and still grieving the death of her adoptive mother, the emotionally fragile teacher enters into a relationship with the father of one of her students just
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Cast
-
Helen Hunt
April Epner -
Bette Midler
Bernice Graves -
Colin Firth
Frank Harte -
Matthew Broderick
Benjamin 'Ben' Green -
Ben Shenkman
Dr. Freddy Epner -
Lynn Cohen
Trudy Epner -
John Benjamin Hickey
Alan -
Salman Rushdie
Dr. Masani -
Daisy Tahan
Ruby -
Tommy Nelson
Jimmy Ray -
Stephanie Yankwitt
Stacey -
Maggie Siff
Lily -
Lillias White
Sheila -
Davide Callegati
Gianni -
Robert LuPone
Ted
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Then She Found Me Trailer & Photos
All Critics (120) | Top Critics (32) | Fresh (61) | Rotten (58) | DVD (7)
Unexpectedly sharp, light and appealing; a testament to Hunt's skills behind the camera.
Top CriticHunt's film does soften the heart, not least because of its honesty and its sensitivity to some unfashionable dilemmas.
From the looks of things, the actors were simply let loose as themselves.
Suffers from, if anything, a lack of pure confidence in the story, the actors or the audience.
Hunt draws some good performances from the cast and wisely chose a low-key personal story for her directorial debut.
A few plot turns too many undermine Helen Hunt's Then She Found Me, and that's too bad, because Hunt shows some nice touches here both in front of and behind the camera.
Trying to establish a serio-comic tone is a task best suited for seasoned directors. Given that a boom microphone drops into the film frame at least twice, Hunt has more basic production elements to master.
Everyone acts decently and you have to praise Hunt for her tenacity. But this suffers from some fairly dire cinematography and a manufactured air that prevents the watcher connecting to the whole thing.
Hunt's lovely voice, pitched in that diurnal-dizzy limbo between mezzo and soprano, is perfect for mid-life crisis. So is her gawky, strung-out, tragicomical body language.
The loudest laughs in this "serious comedy" came from three brief appearances by author Salman Rushdie as a doctor.
Given its cast and source material - Elinor Lipman's highly-regarded novel - it all makes for a highly disappointing experience.
Unendurable American middle-aged whingeing.
It's not going to cause too much of a stir but it left me wanting to see what else she can do, so I am already looking forward to her next film.
All in all, not quite as good as it gets.
This is not without its attractions - an occasionally waspishly witty script and some unexpected dramatic tangents - but the characters never seem more than a casually bagged collection of tics and mannerisms.
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Latest News on Then She Found Me
April 21, 2008:
Then She Found Me a Labor of Love for Helen HuntAfter some time away from the spotlight, Helen Hunt has re-emerged as the producer, director,...
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