The disc: "Then She Found Me"
The details: In one sense, "Then She Found Me" is right from the actor-turned-director playbook. It's basically a performance piece, with nothing too fancy visually, the better to concentrate on the actors, which is, after all, what an actor knows best.
But there's an unusual emotional honesty and shading to the script co-written by Helen Hunt, the star and director, that lifts it far above the usual first films of well-known actors. Hunt plays April, a bedraggled schoolteacher whose husband (Matthew Broderick) dumps her just before her birth mother (Bette Midler) looks her up. At the same time, Hunt finds herself slowly falling for the father of one of her students (Colin Firth.) In other words, it's a 52-pickup movie, with a character whose life is totally shattered, then rebuilt piece by piece.
Hunt allows herself to look believably exhausted, and draws good performances from her cast — even Midler. Most of the time, Midler's performances seem indistinguishable from the parts Shelley Winters used to (over)play, but the script demands more than her standard-issue blunderbuss performance, and she delivers. But what makes the film work is the way the script sneaks up on the characters, not all of whom are likable, but all of whom are deeply human. It's a movie like movies used to be.
The extras: The DVD features Hunt's director's commentary, and some behind-the-scenes footage.
Scott Eyman writes for The Palm Beach Post. E-mail: seyman AT pbpost.com