Then She Found Me
| Then She Found Me | |
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Original poster
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| Directed by | Helen Hunt |
| Produced by | Helen Hunt Pamela Koffler Katie Roumel Connie Tavel Christine Vachon |
| Written by |
Alice Arlen Victor Levin Helen Hunt |
| Based on |
Then She Found Me by Elinor Lipman |
| Starring | Helen Hunt Bette Midler Colin Firth Matthew Broderick |
| Music by | David Mansfield |
| Cinematography | Peter Donahue |
| Edited by | Pam Wise |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by |
ThinkFilm (US) Chelsea Films (UK) |
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Release date
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Running time
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100 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $8,142,237 |
Then She Found Me is a 2007 American comedy-drama film directed by Helen Hunt. The screenplay by Hunt, Alice Arlen, and Victor Levin is very loosely based on the 1990 novel of the same name by Elinor Lipman. The film marked Hunt's feature film directorial debut.
Deeply religious April Epner, a 39-year-old Brooklyn elementary school teacher, finds her life derailed by a series of events over which she has no control. Her husband Ben abruptly leaves her, her abrasive adoptive mother Trudy passes away the following day, and shortly after she is contacted by Alan, a representative of Bernice Graves, the flamboyant host of a local talk show, who introduces herself as her biological mother.
Although intrigued by Bernice's claim that she was fathered by Steve McQueen, April initially resists her efforts to forge a relationship. At the same time, she finds herself attracted to Frank, the divorced father of one of her students, as the two get to know each other via lengthy telephone conversations. For their first date he escorts her to a party at Bernice's apartment.
Complications arise when April discovers she is pregnant, the result of a quick and clumsy coupling with Ben on the kitchen floor just before he left her. April has longed to have a child all her life and is delighted with the news, but is confused and upset by Ben's sudden return, Frank's hasty departure (when he discovers April and Ben had a "quickie" after visiting the gynecologist), and Bernice's insistent attempts to create a bond between them. Not helping the situation is the discovery Bernice voluntarily put her up for adoption a full year after her birth and not three days later at the urging of her parents, according to the scenario she initially presented. When April miscarries, her brother Freddy tries to counsel her, but ultimately she must rely on her deep-rooted faith to deal with the betrayals she has suffered not only at the hands of those she trusted but by the God she worships as well. Eventually she offers reconciliation and forgiveness to Bernice, if Bernice will agree to "buy" a baby for her. Bernice agrees, and then Frank forgives April when she goes to him to apologize for her behavior. Later, the ending shows that April could not have the baby which Bernice paid for, so she adopted a little Chinese girl.
In a bonus feature included with the DVD release of the film, Helen Hunt discusses her ten-year-long journey to get Elinor Lipman's novel to the screen. After first reading it she tried to interest numerous studios in the material, and her unsuccessful efforts led her to begin writing the screenplay and raising funds to produce it herself. Longtime friend Matthew Broderick agreed to play the relatively small role of Ben for scale, and his commitment inspired Hunt to approach Bette Midler and Colin Firth, who were impressed by her passion for the project and agreed to work for minimum pay as well. Although she originally did not intend to portray April, Hunt decided that casting herself in the role ultimately would lighten her work load as a director since she would have one less performance to help mould.
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