Friday, May 09, 2008
Film: And Then We Found It...
I'm not much of a Helen Hunt fan and I was very underwhelmed by her work in the much-acclaimed 'As Good As It Gets.' Thus, my expectations for a movie she directed and starred in, 'Then She Found Me,' were fairly low.
She handily surpassed them in a film with many virtues, including humor, prominently featured Judasim, average looking people (either aging or de-glamorized on purpose?) and some measure of emotional truth.
Parameters, please!
1. Four Words That Summarize: "Midlife Loss and Rediscovery"2. Haikus (5/7/5):
'Nature's clock ticking,
Woman dumped, found, and romanced
What has she learned?'
'Hell in hunt for self
You bet strange lady impacts,
Call in forthright man'
3. Oblique Commentary: I was impressed at the willingness to have Hunt portray a modern, somewhat religious Jew. Prayers and ceremonies feel oddly new and raw on-screen. And yet Hunt's character's religion is not her defining feature - it's just one of her many ways of coping.
4. Insight: This film contains that rarest of sightings, an understated (but pitch-perfect) performance by Bette Midler. Midler works wonders as the semi-tacky but well-meaning local TV personality who seeks out Helen Hunt, the daughter she gave up at age 15, forty years later, and at the worst possible time for Hunt. Midler avoids every cliché, her performance is devoid of campiness. It would be easy to make her funnily tacky, but she rings true as tackily ordinary. Likewise, the screenwriter chose to make Michael Broderick's character (Hunt's boyfriend-cum-husband who dumps her) not an easily hateable creep but just a pathetic, confused, disappointment. I love movies that show life's mess and ambiguity. Even Colin Firth's Mr. Right lives with significant residual pain and anger...
5. Link: Metacritic review summary. Wow, average of 56, or grade C, from 24 reviewers - the reviews are skewed, with some strong raves, some fierce pans, and some faint praise. I'd be a 'weak rave' - grade of 70, B/B- from me.
And here's the trailer...
Cartoon du Jour:
Engrish du Jour: Sinister goings-on...
this entry's permalink
Comments:
Post a Comment
