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Then She Found Me is what a romantic comedy should be: a film with a genuine heart, rather than one with an unbelievable premise and an unrelatable romance between two supermodel-seeming actors. Instead, Then She Found Me is a drama that you can believe and recognize as realistic.

Then She Found Me is the story of the struggles of April Epner (Helen Hunt, Bobby), an elementary school teacher who desperately wants a baby of her own. Her husband Ben (Matthew Broderick, Deck the Halls) isn't quite as enthusiastic about the idea, and leaves her promptly after one last sexual romp on the kitchen floor. She finds solace in a lonely writer named Frank (Colin Firth, The Last Legion), whose wife has just left him as well.

In the midst of their budding romance comes the revelation that a local TV personality named Bernice (Bette Midler, The Stepford Wives) is April's real mother. Before it's all over, there's a pregnancy, a "torrid" affair and plenty of funny dialogue.

Hunt and her co-writers (Victor Levin, Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!, and Alice Arlen, The Weight of Water) adapted Elinor Lipman's novel, but with one glaringly huge change: The desire of the protagonist to be pregnant, a huge part of the movie, was not in the novel. Nevertheless, the change works.

In most films of this genre, romance occurs between two beautiful, eligible singles, but that's not the case here. While Hunt is a beautiful woman, she works very hard to convince you otherwise in the film. She looks conspicuously worn out, with wrinkles and no makeup. It's hard to reconcile this image with the same woman who looked so attractive eight years ago in What Women Want. Likewise, Firth looks as if he just rolled out of bed for most of the film. Together, the pair makes for a refreshingly homey couple.

The film also isn't shy about the desperation of the main characters. Both are middle-aged divorcees, insomniacs and pretty clearly desperate for love - they're not exactly easily digestible.

Then She Found Me is an actor's film and, thankfully, Hunt and Firth live up to the challenge. Hunt is clearly working to sell us on her desperation and vulnerability as April, but she pulls it off. Firth is in his romantic comfort zone as the self-deprecating charmer Frank - he comes off as lovable.

Broderick, as man-child ex-husband Ben, basically trots out his performance from The Producers, only dialed down about 1,000 percent. This turns out to be a good choice, as Broderick's childish innocence allows his character to remain sympathetic despite his many flaws. Also dialed down is Midler, but even with her spunk tamped down she provides welcome energy. Her fast-talking character may come off as annoying at first, but through a combination of the script and Midler's performance, she settles down and is a lot of fun.

In some ways, this sense of fun is exhibited throughout the entire film. The opening scenes are a bit rocky, but soon enough the film gets into its groove and Hunt and Firth fall in love through some very funny scenes. A third act development may strike some as a deus ex machina, but it may ultimately have been the best choice for the plot.

There are enough dramatic developments in Then She Found Me to easily fill its 100-minute runtime. It has vivid characters and snappy dialogue, and it's funny, endearing, moving and whatever other positive adjectives one could suggest.

Hunt had basically dropped off the Hollywood map after What Women Want, and while Then She Found Me won't catapult her back to stardom, that might be a good thing. Here's hoping the next film she makes is half as good as Then She Found Me.

dbenamor@umd.edu

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

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