Quietly sneaks up on you when you least expect it and delivers a powerful emotional punch.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 6, 2019

In her feature film directorial debut, actress Helen Hunt delivers a solid, thoughtful drama marked by terrific performances from a perfectly cast circle of friends.

| Aug 26, 2018

The poor woman [Hunt] deserves a better movie.

| Dec 15, 2017

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Nov 17, 2011

| Original Score: C | Oct 18, 2008

| Original Score: B+ | Oct 18, 2008

Trying to establish a serio-comic tone is a task best suited for seasoned directors. Given that a boom microphone drops into the film frame at least twice, Hunt has more basic production elements to master.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Oct 18, 2008

Unexpectedly sharp, light and appealing; a testament to Hunt's skills behind the camera.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 18, 2008

Everyone acts decently and you have to praise Hunt for her tenacity. But this suffers from some fairly dire cinematography and a manufactured air that prevents the watcher connecting to the whole thing.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 19, 2008

For all its half-hearted attempts to trip expectation, Hunt's adaptation of Elinor Lipman's novel is ultimately a romcom wherein themes of adoption and betrayal come with too much sensitive, careworn soul-searching.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 19, 2008

Hunt's lovely voice, pitched in that diurnal-dizzy limbo between mezzo and soprano, is perfect for mid-life crisis. So is her gawky, strung-out, tragicomical body language.

| Sep 19, 2008

The loudest laughs in this "serious comedy" came from three brief appearances by author Salman Rushdie as a doctor.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 19, 2008

Given its cast and source material - Elinor Lipman's highly-regarded novel - it all makes for a highly disappointing experience.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 19, 2008

Unendurable American middle-aged whingeing.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 19, 2008

All in all, not quite as good as it gets.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 19, 2008

This is not without its attractions - an occasionally waspishly witty script and some unexpected dramatic tangents - but the characters never seem more than a casually bagged collection of tics and mannerisms.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 19, 2008

It's a glum and amateurish business on the three-in-one subject of adoption - being adopted, having your child adopted, and adopting one.

| Sep 19, 2008

It's not the only misstep in Oscar-winning actress Helen Hunt's first film as director, which is a shame because she does a lot of things right.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 19, 2008

The tut-tuttingly dull script refuses to supply a single happy line until Hunt squares up to the sudden arrival of Bette Midler.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 19, 2008

Hunt's film does soften the heart, not least because of its honesty and its sensitivity to some unfashionable dilemmas.

| Original Score: 3/6 | Sep 19, 2008