Helen Hunt Filmography Part 17: Then She Found Me

Helen Hunt’s film directing debut is a touching story about motherhood.

In Then She Found Me (2007) Helen Hunt plays April Epner, a 39 year old woman, who wants to have a baby, but hasn’t been able to get pregnant. Her man-child husband (Matthew Broderick) abruptly leaves her one night, and her feelings around maternity are complicated by the unexpected death of her adoptive mother and the sudden appearance of her birth mother. 

Bette Midler is the only one who gets to have any fun in this movie.

After being left by her husband, April meets Frank (Colin Firth, hells yeah!) the father of one of her students. He is solo parenting his two children after being abandoned by his wife. They begin a tentative romance just before April realizes she is pregnant with her ex-husband’s baby. 

When you love someone the way I love Helen Hunt, you want them to be very happy.

And in the world of on-screen romances Colin Firth is the apex, and I could not be happier for her.

I think the intention was to make, or at least market, this as a romantic comedy, but the subject matter makes it a hard sell. Exploring feelings of abandonment and unwantedness doesn’t make so much for comedy. It could have been a dark, wry, self-deprecating comedy, but it isn’t written that way.

I mean, seriously, could a situation be any more ripe for comedy?

Also there is a random Salman Rushdie appearance.

The movie is written 90% as a soulful,earnest drama, and 10% as a comedy, with all the comedic parts going to Bette Midler. This ends up creating an uneven tone, with Hunt seeming like a glum bunny opposite Midler’s manic cheeriness. Which is unfortunate since we know how funny Helen Hunt can be. 

There are a number of situations that could be mined for comedy—dating the parent of one of your students without them finding out; going to your ob appointments with a menagerie of different men every time; finding out your birth mother is kind of a nut; recognizing the prolonged adolescence of your erstwhile husband…just to name a few.

This is the agony and the ecstasy of parenting in one photo.

This is Helen Hunt’s film directing debut. She had previously directed five episodes of Mad About You, including the pretty wonderful series finale.

I don’t know much, anything really, about making movies. I have a tiny bit of theoretical understanding, and no practical experience. However, I think I am within my scope of knowledge to say that directing a movie is no small thing. 

For me this movie is a winner, but I recognize the shortcomings. The lack of tonal consistency is less a deal breaker, and more of a disappointing missed opportunity. The ending is not bad, but a little too sentimental for a movie that for all its problems was not starry eyed or saccharine. 

In the end, I love Helen Hunt. I love Colin Firth. I love thoughtful explorations of the complexities of motherhood. So overall Then She Found Me hits too many of my buttons for me to not love it.