"Then She Found Me"---a movie review

There are at least 3 things wrong with "Then She Found Me": they are Helen Hunt, the actress, Helen Hunt, the director and Helen Hunt the co-writer.

I enjoyed Helen Hunt in her sit-com and in her Oscar winning role but not much in anything she has done since. In this movie she is so gaunt looking, almost on the verge of being anorexic, that it is distracting throughout the movie, especially in the many close-ups that Helen Hunt, the director, gives her. Aside from that even very thin, unhappy women ocassionally wear make-up or. at the least, try to look better than they may be feeling.

As an actress (and director) there doesn't seem to be any connection let alone  chemistry between her and any of the characters. You know she is in pain and you want to feel for her but she is so into herself that she turns the audience off.

As a director she is very pedestrian offering nothing that a hack couldn't/wouldn't do. There are one too many scenes regarding her Jewishness--we get the point about a half a dozen times. Also, as a co-writer, director and co-producer she gives no explanation as to why a suitor has his child in a Manhattan school while obviously living out of the city.

The biggest disappointment is that as a writer she doesn't delve deeper into the adoption vs. 'natural' born child and their feelings towards their parents and/or siblings.

As a wanna-be mother in her very late 30s there is almost a feeling that you dont' want her to be one. Some of the poorest scenes are the sex scenes--both those where she is trying to conceive and those she isn't.

Though it is no secret that she and Matthew Broderick were once lovers in real life there is absolute zero chemistry between them in the film. Matthew is a Peter-Pan type (who when they break up goes home to his mother) and after watching/seeing their two sex scenes you get the idea that they stayed together only because of their vows. The opposite of Helen, Matthew is turning into a 'roly-poly' now that he is in his 40s--time for him to get to the gym a couple of times a week.

Bette Midler plays Helen's biological mother who hasn't seen her since giving her up 39 years previously. Midler plays talk show queen who is not as flamboyant as she could be and delivers a solid performance, especially in her 'big' scene.

Colin Firth also gives a sterling performance that belongs in another movie. There is no reason he and Helen should connect or even continue seeing each other. He brings a lot of much needed life to the movie but his character doesn't belong here.

One very puzzling misstep is the ending--did she adopt the child? Did she have the child in vitro? Is the child Chinese though through the movie she doesn't want to go that route?

This movie only runs 100 minutes but seems like 3 hours. All in all the director/actress/produce/writer--all in the form (a very thin form even stretched out more) of Helen Hunt and she doesn't deliver in any capacity.

A MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT!