Helen Hunt's feature film directorial debut has a lot going for it. Her all-star cast (herself, Bette Midler, Colin Firth, and Matthew Broderick) doles out the dark humor in a love story that spans the gamut of love through romance, family, and friendship. With an assortment of anti-heroes and a tender, mildly relatable plot, Then She Found Me aspired to be the Indie film of the year.
It wasn't. It wasn't the worst either, of course. While I'm slow to judge films that were based on books I haven't read, I'll say that my problem wasn't at all with the story so much as the plot structure, the acting, and the dialog.
This film, simply, belongs on stage. At least the way it's structured currently. It's in two acts (a film should be in three), it takes too long to get into the meat of the story, and it wraps up quickly and awfully. I was waiting for a curtain call.
The acting is too dramatic, especially in Midler and Broderick- both are amazing stage performers, but need to stay in their element. Hunt, it seems, is still used to sitcom acting, and leaves something to be desired in her weak performance. Firth is really the only one to bring the cinematic into the film. He is the only one of the four who adds emotional dimension to his character.
The dialog is too fast for an Indie film. It brings the completely unrealistic “Gilmore Girls element” of too-quick banter to something that should be and could easily be more realistic. Again, this kind of dialog belongs on the stage, where quick witty words would bring down the house. I just had a hard time following it.
Where we should have been sympathizing, we were straining our ears, and where we should have been empathizing, we were rolling our eyes in skepticism.
All in all, it was not a waste of time, but it was time I'd rather have spent in a theatre watching the story live. The story could be adapted for stage with ease, and should have been adapted better for film.
