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'Then She Found Me'

BY GENE SEYMOUR | Special to Newsday

April 25, 2008

Gaunt, grim and wound as tight as a ukulele's string, April Epner (Helen Hunt), the elementary schoolteacher undergoing the mother of all midlife crises in "Then She Found Me," is a stern challenge to an audience's collective sympathy. We feel her pain, nonetheless, when, in swift succession, her adoptive mother dies, her Peter Pan husband (Matthew Broderick) abandons her for another woman and, out of the blue, her real mother (Bette Midler) turns out to be narcissistic talk-show queen Bernice Graves, who claims April is the fruit of a one-night stand with Steve McQueen.

That's enough screwball complexity for a season-long sitcom, though sitcom veteran Hunt, making her feature directorial debut here, is after something deeper and more challenging. She starts by making April difficult to like, especially in her brittle engagement with both Bernice and with Frank Harte (Colin Firth), a divorced dad to one of April's students and an earnest, willing bridge over April's troubled waters.

Hunt's touch behind the camera is sometimes as severe as her demeanor in front of it, though she can do some very nice things; especially within the intimate surroundings where her actors flourish. It's gratifying to see Midler carry out such a polished, nuanced comedic turn while Firth's stoic grace and wiry moodiness conspire - and almost succeed - in stealing the show.

THEN SHE FOUND ME (R). Helen Hunt stars in her directorial debut as a tightly wound schoolteacher who meets her real mother ( Bette Midler) just as her adoptive mom dies and she's abandoned by her husband ( Matthew Broderick). Colin Firth excels as the divorced dad seeking Hunt's favor. Adapted by Hunt, Victor Levin and Alice Arlen from the Elinor Lipman novel. 1:40 (some vulgarities and sexual content). At First and 62nd Cinemas and Chelsea Cinemas, Manhattan.