Oscar-winning actress Helen Hunt takes on a triple role in the new film Then She Found Me. As director, star and co-writer of the screenplay adaptation from Eleanor Lipman's best-selling novel, Hunt scores points in all three categories.

April Epner (Hunt) is about to experience the biggest moment in her life. She’s marrying Ben (Matthew Broderick), the schoolteacher who teaches right across the hall from her at an elementary school. However, wedding bliss soon ends when Ben announces, “This isn’t the life I want to live.”

This leaves April as more than a new divorcee. She’s 39 years old, wants a child, and her biological clock is ticking. When April discovers the father of one of her students is a single-dad raising two children and writing book blurbs in his car while his son attends school, she’s intrigued.

Frank (Colin Firth) is not only also divorced, he’s bitter. His ex went off to paint in Europe, leaving him to raise two small kids. Frank and April strike up an immediate friendship, which quickly becomes intimate. But each of them is afraid of commitment because of the other’s baggage.

April’s problems intensify when her adopted mother dies and a stranger shows up claiming to be her real mother. April never imagined her real mother would be a New York City morning talk show host; or that she could be related to a woman as bizarre as the boisterous Bernice Graves (Bette Midler).

April suffers more traumas after discovering she’s pregnant with Ben’s child and then loses it. Everything in her life screams out for a mother, and Beatrice is patient. Sometimes she sits in her car at the curb outside April’s apartment “just in case.”

Several things make this story appealing. It’s warm, funny, romantic and heartfelt at times. Yet there are flaws too, some that keep you rethinking long after the movie; which -- in a way -- is good, I suppose.

Hunt does a great job carrying out the complex emotions streaming through April’s problems. She’s guarded with her mother, perplexed at Ben, hopeful and joyous with Frank and bitterly sad at all three during some moments of the film. I must admit that Hunt’s appearance drew some gasps from the moviegoers in the screening I attended. She’s very frail and almost haggard looking. I know she chose to do the role with no makeup, but I’m not sure if losing the weight was part of that decision as well. I don’t think it helped the part.

Bette Midler comes across as spunky and adorable as ever, but she never goes over the top into Midler-ville. Broderick receives little screen time and never makes an impression either way. Firth appears very sincere as a single dad trying to keep his kids first and constantly balancing what’s right against his own wishes. He’s really the most sincere character in the movie, and when he’s on screen, the film’s minor problems disappear from mind.

I think it’s safe to say Then She Found Me is a chick-flick -- but couples over 30 will also enjoy this movie. It’s entertaining and addresses some of life’s uncertainties about damaged relationships.

(Released by THINKFilm and rated “R” for language and some sexual content.)

Review also posted at www.reviewexpress.com.