Then She Found Me ***

"Then She Found Me" was obviously a labor of love for Helen Hunt. She starred, directed, and produced the movie, and co-wrote the screenplay adaptation of Elinor Lipman's novel of the same name. It's a funny, interesting, difficult film about a difficult and interesting middle-aged woman who is forced to confront herself when faced with multiple life-changing events.

When we meet her, April Epner (Hunt) has a history we can imagine. She is middle aged but newly married. She is desperate to have a child before it's too late. She is great with her school kids (she's a grammar school teacher) but not so great with adults. There are issues with her boy-man husband (a suitably immature Matthew Brokerick), issues with her mother, who wants her to adopt (like she did). Then when she loses both her husband and her mother, she's suddenly confronted with her birth mother (an intense but controlled Bette Midler) and a suitor (winningly play by Colin Firth).

What April learns in the course of the movie is, as I say, funny, difficult and interesting, and the movie does not give us an easy way to get there. Hunt does a fine job of both directing and acting, and makes us look at her without the star hair and make-up treatment, too-skinny neck and all, which is so true to the character, but difficult and interesting to watch. This movie will not find a big audience, but it's worth your consideration as a movie about a real-sounding person in a real place who does learn some not-easy lessons.

Rated R. 100 minutes. Helen Hunt - Director / Writer (screenplay) / Producer, Alice Arlen - Writer (screenplay), Victor Levin - Writer (screenplay), Elinor Lipman - Writer (novel), Pamela Koffler - Producer, Katie Roumel - Producer, Connie Tavel - Producer, Christine Vachon - Producer, Peter Donahue - Cinematographer, David Mansfield - Composer, Stephen Beatrice - Production Designer, Pam Wise - Editor. Distributed in the U.S. by THINKFilm.

Principal actors: Helen Hunt, Bette Midler, Colin Firth, Matthew Broderick, and Ben Shankman.