Matthew Broderick and Helen Hunt star in Then She Found Me. (Photo provided by ThinkFilms)

Oscar-winning actress Helen Hunt makes her directorial debut with "Then She Found Me," in which she also stars and receives a writing credit. It's no wonder she looks so haggard throughout the film.

That said, there are some nice moments, such as the scene in which April (Hunt) and her brother, Freddy (Ben Shenkman), are sharing a meal, and Freddy says, "You don't know what it's like to NOT be adopted."

As much as it pained Freddy to say it -- he's embarrassingly teary-eyed as he does -- it needed to be said.

April was adopted, and though she had a good relationship with her late mother and is close to Freddy, her adoptedness has consumed her. And now that she's an orphan again -- their father died years earlier -- the self-absorbed April is on a mission to have a child of her own before it's too late. She's 39, and her mission is thwarted when her boy-man husband, Ben (a smarmy Matthew Broderick), leaves her after less than a year of marriage, complaining, "I don't want this life."

April's life snowballs from there into a complicated and emotional mess. Right after Ben leaves, she begins a flirtation with the divorced father of one of her kindergarten students, and then April's birth mother contacts her. And it turns out April IS pregnant, the result of breakup sex with Ben.

Colin Firth, the love interest, and Bette Midler, the birth mother, provide some of the other enjoyable moments. Trouble is, they can't prop the story up well enough to hold it together.

Firth's Frank is a damaged man, still reeling from his wife leaving him with two young children to raise. He's dead tired all the time and works out of his car in the school parking lot. He's outwardly sensitive and sweet, but inside he's given to fits of frustration that erupt when he's had all he can take.

Midler plays Bernice Graves, a pushy, larger-than-life talk-show host April has never heard of, which seems odd. What Hunt handles well is April's pregnancy. She doesn't let everyone's baggage create extraneous drama. That April is pregnant by one man and in love with another while trying to come to terms with her own parentage does not keep her from feeling joy over her condition.

April may be selfish, but she's also focused and self-aware. She gives a poignant speech to Frank about hurting those you love, and truer words are rarely spoken in films. It's another satisfying moment.

Hunt has what it takes to direct; you can see it here in small doses.

Photo provided by ThinkFilms

Matthew Broderick plays the flaky husband of Helen Hunt in a movie the actress directed and helped write. Hunt's debut as a director holds promise of better work to come.

By Teresa Budasi / Universal Press Syndicate