'Then She Found Me'

"Then She Found Me" wants to be a romantic comedy for older chicks (once a chick, always a chick!), but it's strangely dry and brittle and unfunny — a plate of al dente pasta that needed three more minutes on the stove and a dollop of olive oil or some kind of um, lubricant.

Still, many chicks will feel the urge to defend the film, to like it and root for it. This marks the directorial debut of Helen Hunt ("As Good As It Gets," "What Women Want"), who throughout her career has consistently played the put-upon, good-sport gal with typical good-sport acumen. If anyone deserves a break, it's Helen Hunt, and not just a break but a good acupuncturist or masseuse to smooth away that trademark expression of suppressed pain and anxiety.

Hunt has said in interviews that she decided to cast herself in the main role mainly because of budget constraints, but that doesn't stop her from giving herself a lot of extreme close-ups.