“THEN SHE FOUND ME” (Helen Hunt, Bette Midler, Colin Firth & Matthew Broderick)
Let me start by saying I liked this movie, but I am going to pick at its flaws... At times it reminded me of “Smart People”, in that the characters were believable because they reacted the way a human being would – some days they’re likable, some days they’re crabby & obnoxious...
April Epner (Helen Hunt) is a 39 year old elementary schoolteacher who wants to have a baby. The night she plans for conception seems to fall apart when her husband Ben (Matthew Broderick) tells her he’s been cheating on her & wants a divorce... For some unknown reason, April has sex with him anyway (A major flaw) Where the movie heads next, as far as I’m concerned, is into a much more interesting direction & so the whole ‘having sex with Ben after he tells April he’s leaving her’ scene was not necessary to make this a good film.
Within hours of being dumped, April’s adopted Jewish mother dies; the handsome father of one of her students (Colin Firth) makes an awkward pass at her (or was it?) & her birth mother, Bernice (Bette Midler) contacts her for the first time & reveals that Steve McQueen was her father... So on top of being dumped – a whole load of issues are dumped upon April.
Yet, the movie dashes through these myriad of emotional moments in such quick concession it almost seems unreal at times. There’s too much on the plate at one time. I wanted director Helen Hunt to slow down, to edit out some of the extraneous storyline – ergo, the soon-to-be-ex-husband stuff. The gradual affair that blossoms between April & Frank (Firth’s character) is sweet; the much too eager to make up for lost time birth mother versus the ‘stop-doing-this-to-me-I can’t-deal-with-you-coming-into-my-life-right-now’ daughter scenes involving Hunt & Midler are the best parts of the movie... seriously! & I say that as someone who has never been a big Bette Midler fan. She’s fun on talk shows, but neither the musical nor the acting career has done much for me in the past. Midler's Bernice comes on like gangbusters & bounces in and out of the film until she suddenly realizes what she’s doing is the wrong approach & literally drops to her knees to beg April to give her a chance to make up for abandoning her.
April says & does some stupid things & it is sometimes difficult to forgive her, but the movie virtually begs you to do just that.
Also a scene where lovable Frank goes berserk & cusses out April hits the mark – it makes him ‘human’.
Where the movie goes awry is at the end; a religious discussion in a doctor’s office that ends in a prayer confused me.
& the ‘Feel Good Tacked On Happy Ending’ (Ala ‘Smart People’) really doesn’t work here because it tells you the April you’ve come to know has changed overnight without any explanation!
Still, as a ‘character study’, I enjoyed most of “Then She Found Me”, despite the fact that with Helen Hunt’s first close-up, I thought she was Roger Hodgson of Supertramp! Her withered & wrinkled flesh made the fact that she was supposed to be portraying a 39 year old a bit of a joke. All in all, though, I found Helen’s directorial debut to be a nice little film that would be worth renting on DVD someday. Very good performances by the entire cast, & a surprisingly impressive showing from Ms. Midler.
12 comments:
Oh a new review to a movie I had no knowledge of wahtsoever. Helen Hunt doesn't look good in this ? She was looking pretty good in What A Woman Wants. Someone was on the radio today saying Goldie Hawn looks like she has metled and that gravity hasn't been kind to her. It's going to happen to most of you, then you get to die. That's your present.
Anyway, where was this movie? I had never heard of it.
I'd like to invite you to have a martini, but it's kind of hard since you aren't dead. I tell ya, some of these old directors and actors are total characters I tell ya. John Ford is real good at darts and Frank Capra is a great bowler. Newbie Robert Altman hasn't started on a good note. He got caught cheating playing cards. For the time being he has been relegated to 4 square with Judy Garland, Wally Cox and Marlon Brando.
Cheers !
I too enjoyed this flick. I had not heard of it, but found it anyway!
Helen Hunt has become a bit older looking, I actually thought she might have had some botched work done in the beginning of the movie.
Hello Brian, I need to get off the judging women's looks - got on that kick while writing for Sportsradio - figuring THAT audience wanted that kind of info.
I first noticed Helen Hunt in "Project X" - a wonderful movie she made with Matthew Broderick; then watched her grow into an Academy Award winning actress - so I'm a big fan. Thing is - I hadn't seen her for a while & was sort of shocked when she first came onscreen & looked pale, wrinkled & withered (Comparing her to a member of Supertramp was a low blow, but it was all meant in humor- plus That Is exactly what entered my mind when viewing her first close-up)
The movie is playing at Uptown in Queen Anne (Across the street from Dick's Drive-In) & will undoubtedly be gone soon - that's why I suggest it as a good DVD rental in the future.
Doesn't it count that there's a few people in the world that WISH I were dead? I'd love to meet Wally Cox, just to ask him if he really is John Clayton's illegitimate father. & Frank Capra bowls, huh? Could you ask him what he thought of that silly ending to
"There Will Be Blood?" for me?
Hi, Joanne! Yes, I meant to say that there are only a few scenes where Helen looks extremely haggard, for the most part she looks pleasant - especially when she finally combs her hair! & playing a character who's suppose to be 39 didn't help. It isn't a stand-out film, but it's an interesting character study & a pleasant tale. A woman's movie, unquestionably, but I think some guys might like it because it isn't one of those 'dumbed down'
chick flicks. Thanks for writing, Joanne - please do so again.
Since we get everything up here I'll have to remember to watch it.
I asked Frank about the TWBB ending and some others as well. It seemed to go about 50/50 on liking it and not. I persoanlly had no problem with it. He was going to kill Eli one day anyway, why not then, when Plainview is whacked out of his brain by that point and extremely hung over and dehydrated ( yes that's water not vodka he's chugging ) so him killing him with a bowling pin at the end and mocking Eli didn't bother me in the least.
David Lean, William Wyler, Capra and George Stevens liked it and John Ford, Otto Preminger, Alfred Hitchcock and Elia Kazan did not.
We are going to be seeing Gunfight At The OK Corral tonight. A John Sturges gem. What will you be reviewing next ?
I tell ya, Sam, the TWBB ending seemed kind of silly to me. Not that I didn't want to see Eli get killed, its the 'slapstick' way Plainview does it that had me shaking my head. Look, if Hitchcock says its a bad ending - its a bad ending!
Not being an Indiana Jones fan, there really isn't much to see - I may not make it to a theater this week. Thanks for the heavenly update!
Well, I will take great note and respect the opinion of the Oscar winning directors in Stevens ( Giant, A Place In The Sun )Lean ( Lawrence Of Arabia, The Bridge On The River Kwai ) Capra ( You Can't Take It With You, Mr. Deeds Goes To Town ) and Wyler (Ben-Hur, The Best Years Of Our Lives ) and Hitchcock had a goode egg 0 :( He still won't let it go. We hear it on an amlost daily basis up here about him never winning an Oscar. I tell him all the time, I never had either.
But on a serious note, I liked that Plainview acted the way he did at the end because he was basically insane. How do you expect an insane person to act ? Cordial ? His insanity was also mocking the phony religion that Eli was pulling all of those years.
We have seen the movie numerous times and give it a 9. As far as filmmaking in it's truest form goes and all aspects, it hits on all cylinders. What we seem to agree on up here ( Alfred as well ) is that it's very rare to see that many human emotions displayed in one movie. I can't think of an emotion that wasn't put across. That was very smart on the part of the writer.
Since we can see all whenever we want, we screened the new Indy movie and there were many different opinions. I personlly think it's the worst of the four and it goes into super schlock at times where it's way over the top unbelievable. But it's supposed to be fantasy right ?
I'm dining with Stanley Kramer this evening and then we are going to retire the night watching The Ox-Bow Incident. Cheers !
Thanks Brian (Sam), I understand Plainview's insanity, just thought the whole 'throwing bowling pins' routine was kind of silly. I would have liked to see Plainview drown Eli in a toilet - revenge for dosing him with holy water!
But something we all agree on is DDL's performance was incredible.
So, when a movie is shown 'up there', do you have the ability to change the ending? Sure would be nice if the lynch mob doesn't go thru with the hangings in 'Ox Bow'
(Just once)
We just welcomed the very fine and talented director and actor Sydney Pollock to our heavenly abode. He's not too keen about it right yet. He still wanted another 15 years or so. But we told him we wanted to bring him up quick as we didn't want him to suffer as his cancer was unfortunately terminal. I mean we just saw him in Michael Clayton several motns ago.
He did seem to light up when he was greeted by Billy Wilder and Alfred Hitchcock. George Roy Hill offered him a shot of Brandy.
As a tribute we gave him his pick on what movie of his we would be viewing. It's a fine choice in Absence Without Malice.
Before I let you go Mr. Reid, what movies will you probably be reviewing in the month of June in 2008 ?
Hi Sam (Brian) (AKA Brian (Sam);
It is sad knowing we will never see any new works from the late Mr.Pollock, though. Although he went out with a great flick(Michael Clayton was my favorite of the 5 nominated 'Best' films) I will always quote the man from the 'please be quiet' promos he did where he mocks a heartbroken man trying to win back his girl over the phone with "You're the best thing that ever happened to me"(In a cry-baby whine)
Frequent theater goers will know what I'm talking about - it was a great clip. Believe it or not, after seeing the previews for "Get Smart", I actually have high hopes that a 60's TV series might finally be transferred to the big screen with success.
In the meantime - if you liked any of the previous 'Indiana Jones' movies, you know you're going to see #4 no matter what the critics say & the same with "Sex & The City" - You know that if my wife can't find a gay friend to take her to see it & I get hogtied & forced to attend that I'll be ripping it to shreds - so what's the point in my wasting time & money to see 2 movies that fans of will enjoy & resent me for not liking what they like?
You wouldn't catch me near Sex And The City. I thought that was the most uninteresting characters I could remember on a TV show, and I gave the series a fair shot too. Obviously my wife thinks it's awesome. Totally overrated if you ask me.
As for Indy 4, it's the worst of them all is all I can say. Not the most terrible movie I have ever seen, but it's predictable, and in some spots overly hokey even for that franchise. I was borderline disappointed. Ford is too old for the role now.
How many movies does it take before a franchise becomes stale?
It's a question I pose for others because I'm not really into 'franchise' films. Probably 'Jurrasic Park' heads the list because I didn't care about the stories - I just wanted to see 'real' dinosaurs brought to life! "Lethal Weapon" was good for one sequel(not 4!) & even though I've seen all 3 of the 'Pirates' &
'Shrek' movies, I'm not really a 'fan' of them. Thanks for dropping a note again, Kurt - & extra thanks for replying to 'Anonymous Who Thinks I'm Dumb' for me!
Post a Comment