So today I went to the JCC to watch a free movie. It’s Helen Hunt’s directorial debut and it’s called “Then She Found Me.” I mostly went because it featured Colin Firth AND it was free, and there’s no way I can say no to a movie that has two such stellar features. It was surprisingly disappointing. I blame that on a mediocre story and the fact that I’ve never really liked Helen Hunt’s acting. To top it off, she’s ridiculously gaunt, and I couldn’t focus on the words sometimes, because I was so distracted by her bony neck and stringy hair.

The story goes like this: Hunt’s character, April, is an adopted child, with an aching desire to get pregnant because she’s pushing 40. Her husband leaves, her, her adoptive mother dies, and she gets involved with the father of one of her students. Meanwhile her birth mother, a talk show host, comes into her life, wanting to get to know her and create some kind of fabulous relationship. But oh things, don’t work out that way do they? So, anyway, Hunt’s character is stll in love with her ex, in love with the single dad and struggling with the birth mom issue, while she herself is thinking about having a child.

That’s a lot of story.

Couple of scenes made me uncomfortable. Firth plays a recently-divored man with children. I get that people who’re divorced can be emotional, especially if recently so, but hoo-boy, did he come off as unhinged. And that’s not so appealing in a romantic comedy. You want to come off pleasantly neurotic, not borderline manic. Another challenging bit was the love scenes between Firth and Hunt. Why would they get it on, on the couch in the living room in house where the kids are sleeping? Wouldn’t they do it in a bedroom with the door shut/ locked?

The dialogues was funny in parts, but every now and then they sounded like something Hunt would say in the last two seasons of Mad About You. (The bad seasons).

The thing that ultimately I find so unlikable is how the movie veers between reactionless to self-indulgent. A woman’s husband leaves her, and yet she has virtually no visible reaction? On the flip side, so much self-indulgence. The husband leaves because he feels overwhelmed. Hunt’s character does stupid shit because she can’t help herself. I think we’ve reached an era now where people no longer feel obligated to restrain themselves– it’s become all about giving in to your foibles and weaknesses, at the cost of everyone and everything around us. We see it in film all the time. At one time, that was compelling to watch, because OMG look how fragile we all are and how susceptible we are to weakness and temptation. But now I’m fed up of it. This  public show of weakness is ridiculous.

I should note that the movie is based on a book, very very loosely. Wikipedia informs me that in the book ” April was single, not divorced. Her love interest is not the father of a student but the also-single school librarian. The biological clock was not an overriding issue.”

So basically, two of the three elements of the movie (i.e. biological clock, single dad) are non-existent in the book. The focus of the book, therefore, must have been the adoption issue. And it would have been very interesting too, if the script-writers hadn’t muddled it up with the single-father and ex-husband angle.

Anyway, 2 stars out of 5. Don’t go unless it’s a free screening.