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Starring Helen Hunt, Bette Midler
Directed by Helen Hunt
I have never been one to put ‘good’ and ‘Bette Midler’ in the same
sentence, but here it is. Bette Midler is the one good thing about
Helen Hunt’s directorial debut, Then She Found Me.
Midler is the titular she, Bernice, a TV talk show host who walks into
the life of her biological daughter April (Hunt) the day her adoptive
mother dies.
April has also been dumped by her husband (Matthew Broderick) and the
bio-clock is ticking. Loudly. This aspiring screwball / indie /
serio-dramedy is stuffed with genre staples from potential boyfriend to
fake break-up.
It is further crippled by out-of-control sign posting and
predictability: there are few surprises, which only leaves performance
for entertainment.
Midler is one of the few bright spots in an otherwise lumpy and rather
unfunny affair. An actress whose candid campery is well suited to the
role, she elevates that which Hunt otherwise fills with a cloying sense
of dread and desperation.
Seldom has a comedy needed Prozac quite like this.
In some deep, dark corner there is an uproarious romcom about life, death and everything in-between aching to get out.
If only Hunt had found a way to set it free.
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