Salt Lake Tribune
Sean P. Means
May 16, 2008
Hunt plays April Epner, a 39-year-old New York schoolteacher who gets hit with a series of heartaches: Her wishy-washy husband (Matthew Broderick) leaves her, her mother (Lynn Cohen) dies, she discovers she’s pregnant, and from out of the blue comes a TV talk-show host (Bette Midler) claiming to be her biological mother. Adding to April’s personal bewilderment is a mutual attraction with Frank (Colin Firth), the haggard, just-divorced father of one of her students.
In adapting Elinor Lipman’s 1990 novel, Hunt shows a flair for the unpredictable, sending what could have been a sitcom-level story into unusual directions. Hunt also shows a knack for offbeat casting (e.g., author Salman Rushdie as April’s OB/GYN) and for exercising just enough restraint with her actors – even Midler, who underplays her way to one of her best performances ever.
