Then She Found Me

Starring Helen Hunt, Bette Midler, Colin Firth, and Matthew Broderick
Directed by Helen Hunt
Rated R

But since As Good As It Gets won her an Academy Award, Hunt has been reticent to take any part that comes along; in fact, since What Women Want in 2000, she's only appeared in three theatrical films.

She has returned at full strength with Then She Found Me, a streamlined, effective melodrama about a complicated mess of a story. Hunt not only stars but also co-wrote the script and directs this festival-ready movie about a woman's struggle to find love and a meaning in her life facing 40 and facing, for the first time, her biological mother (Bette Midler).

Then She Found Me has a lot of familiar components; the cast includes not only Hunt and Midler but also Colin Firth as a romantic interest and Matthew Broderick as something of a weasel. The ebb and flow of the story feels familiar, and after all, many a movie has been made about a woman losing love and then finding it where she least expects. For a first time director like Hunt, this is pretty smart planning. There's no need to reinvent the wheel as long as you give an audience a good story that's also well told.

Overall, Then She Found Me meets that standard. The performances are what you'd expect, with the single exception of Colin Firth, who is hysterical and heartbreaking as a single father who shoots from the hip and is barely holding it together.

There are minor issues here and there and some plot points that are either too big or too small for the surroundings, but all in all, this is a nice, competent bit of filmmaking. Now if we could only say that every week, we'd really have something.