Then She Found Me
|
List Price: Our Price: $2.49 You Save: $12.49 (83%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.59 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Then She Found Me
Movie Review: Real life story, not a fairy tale
Summary: 3 Stars
This story could have been told to me in real life, it is not the fairy tale story we usually see in Colin Firth or Helen Hunt movies. The ending is too rushed, with several key scenes left out. (For example, what happened with the IVF? What's the deal with Colin Firth, and how long did it take for him to forgive her? Why are they not together? Whatever happened to Matthew Broderick? Is Bette Midler still involved in Helen Hunt's life, or on they on the outs again? How difficult was it to obtain this chinese kid?) This was really disorienting, with no cues as to how much time had passed between scenes (months? years?) I was hoping to find these scenes in the bonus features, but instead there is just a long series of boring interviews where the actors drone on and on about how wonderful they all are. Skip those!
This movie is really different than the book, where the focus is on how the bio mom is a chronic liar. The focus in this movie is how you can't trust anybody, giving the film a pessimistic tone.
No happy ending, unless you're rooting for chinese orphans. Why would a deeply religious Jewish character adopt one?
Salman Rushdie was surprisingly good. Bette Midler played a caricature of herself. Matthew Broderick seemed to be sleepwalking. Helen Hunt seemed emaciated and fatigued. Colin Firth was an old curmudgeon (he's much better in the Bridget Jones movies!).
Movie Review: Only Better Midler has a likable role among the four main characters
Summary: 3 Stars
We saw "Then She Found Me" at the AFI Dallas 2008 Film Festival. The directorial debut from Helen Hunt seemed poised for promising things, but never found an audience. Its widest release was a paltry 153 theaters. Box office receipts fell just short of $4 million domestically. The worldwide tally was right on $8m according to Box Office Mojo.
The reason? Like others on these pages have noted, of the four main characters only Bette Midler was likable. Delightfully so. I spent the time The Divine Miss M was off-screen waiting for her to return. Helen Hunt looks tired and determinedly unhappy. Matthew Broderick is odd, nebbish (and chunky to boot). Colin Firth's character keeps an explosive temper barely under wraps. I realize these are the roles they're playing, but the result is that you're hard-pressed to root for any of these three.
However, my kudos to Ms. Hunt for the awesome stunt-casting of Salman Rushdie as a gynecologist. That rocked. I felt like I was in on a nice inside joke there. And I would have found more scenes to deploy Ben Shenkman, who appears here as Ms. Hunt's on-screen brother. This great stage actor was indelible in Mike Nichols' HBO adaptation of Angels in America. He's regrettably under-utilized here.
Movie Review: Tale of two women needing children
Summary: 3 Stars
In the beginning of this film, based on Elinor Lipman's novel of the same title, April (Hunt) and Ben (Broderick) are getting married. The very next scene is Ben leaving to return to his overprotective Jewish mother.
Next April, who met Ben teaching classes across the hall from him, discovers that Ben quit his job and she's stuck with his classes as well. That's when she meets Frank (Colin Firth) the divorced parent of one of her kids. Frank wants to see April, but he's too hurt by his own life to make that commitment.
Just when you think things are complicated enough for April, enter Bernice (Midler) a talk show hostess who claims to be April's Mom. When April finds that Bernice isn't quite truthful, she offers the woman one more challenge to stay in her life--help me get the baby I want.
The story's heartfelt, but I think it's probably "Lifetime" or movie-of-the-week material rather than the big screen. Hunt, Firth, and Midler are in top form, but Broderick just doesn't quite cut it.
One warning: bring a hankie or three. This is another one of those Midler films you're going to cry through.
Rebecca Kyle, June 2008
Movie Review: "Jump And I'll Catch You" ~ And They Lived ...?
Summary: 3 Stars
After watching the '07 attempt at romantic comedy `Then She Found Me' I can only assume the moral of the story is that `happily ever after' is no longer the goal in a relationship. It has now been replaced by the more realistic and they lived `somewhat content for the time being'. Yes, in my estimation the film is indeed that cynical and pessimistic. This assumption on my part is further supported by the Jewish joke told at the beginning and end of the movie. It's about a trusting child being told by his Father to jump off a high step only to be allowed to fall instead of being caught by his Dad as promised. What's the lesson? I guess it's something like even the ones you love the most will let you down, or worse, don't trust anyone.
Needless to say I didn't enjoy this film despite the presence of the usually charming Colin Firth and the always vulnerable, girl-next-door Helen Hunt. On the positive side there are some unexpectedly unique twists and turns in both storyline and dialogue but it's not enough to save this overall dismal film. Oh yeah, I liked Bette Midler in this one, thought I'd never say that about her in anything.
Movie Review: Watchable but hardly believable
Summary: 3 Stars
I haven't read the novel this movie is based on, so I cannot comment on this film adaptation. The movie is watchable, but I find a number of aspects somewhat hard to believe. First of all, Helen Hunt looks way too old in the movie even to be playing a person who is almost too old to have a baby. She is really in her mid 40s and was playing someone who was supposed to be 39, but she looked more like 50. Second, the intitial interaction between April and her biological mother doesn't seem very believable. Third, the Broderick chataceter doesn't seem very believeable as a teacher. He doesn't seem like a teacher and apparently just walks off the job to go live with his mom. Fourth, April seems like she doesn't go to work very much for a teacher. After the first few scenes in the movie, she seems to be everywhere but school during the day. Fifth, the relationship between April and the father of her student seems a little quick and odd. Finally, April's desire to have a kid of her own at almost all costs seems a little unbelievable. Anyway, if you can get past all of these things, the movie is watchable.