Then She Found Me

Stars: Helen Hunt, Colin Firth, Matthew Broderick, Bette Midler, Lynne Cohen, Ben Shenkman, Salman Rushdie, Edie Falco, Janeane Garofalo, John Benjamin Hickey, Tim Robbins

Director: Helen Hunt

Helen Hunt's directorial debut, this has the makings of a different kind of romcom, but too seldom delivers the goods. There are fleeting moments that affect or amuse, but far too many others that threaten to send you to sleep.

Hunt herself, looking older than of late, plays April, a primary school teacher whose husband (Broderick) is about to leave her. In what is to prove a fateful encounter, they have sex, but a few hours later he's gone, and into April's life come both her brassy birth mother (Midler) and a divorced dad (Firth), with whom April instantly connects. Then she discovers she's pregnant - by her estranged husband.

Midler gets a role different from her usual line and handles it well, never overplaying. Firth is also good, enjoying most of the script's few good lines. Hunt, though, is never sympathetic enough: perhaps her mind was more on directing this painfully uninvolving film, which could easily have been called Pieces of April if someone hadn't nicked that first.

David Quinlan

USA 2007. UK Distributor: Chelsea Films. Technicolor.
101 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 1.

Review date: 14 Sep 2008