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| Raising Helen |
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  (5/10)
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Runtime: 119 |
| Public Rating: 8.24 (42 votes) |
Director: Garry Marshall |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Comedy/ Drama |
Year: 2004 |
| Writer(s): Jack Amiel and Michael Begler |
| Distributor: Touchstone Pictures |
| Reviewed by: Nate Anderson |
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Starring: Kate Hudson, John Corbett, Joan Cusack, Spenser Breslin, Abagail Breslin, Hayden Panettiere, and Helen Mirren
Raising Helen is a touching and funny little comedy that doesn't overstay its welcome and is certainly pleasant enough. The problem is that it doesn't take any chances and it becomes readily clear from the beginning how the film is going to progress to its ending. It's predictable from the beginning all the way to the end.
The film begins with Helen (Hudson) living life in the fast lane. She works as an executive assistant to a big time model agent Dominique (Mirren), who commands loyalty and commitment to their job. Helen is good at her job, networking with various clubs and designers to help the next big talent be discovered. She is very popular with the club bouncers and resturant hosts.
She is also popular with her family, and established as the "fun aunt" in the family at a birthday party for her sister, Lindsay (Felicity Huffman). Her other sister, Jenny (Cusack) is shown to be the "super-mom" who thrives on order. She even tells her unborn son not to kick while she is talking because it's rude.
Tragedy strikes, however, when Lindsay and her husband are killed in an auto accident. Everyone is surprised when the custody of their three children (Breslin, Panettiere and Breslin) is left to Helen. Helen is initially reluctant to be their guardian, but takes it on.
Of course, we know that taking the kids on will cause big complications that will eventually cause her to lose her job as Dominique's assistant among other predictable complications. She decides to move the kids into the city with her, since the older sister confides in Helen that they need a change since their old neighborhood just reminds them of what happened.
Once there, Helen enrolls them in a Lutheran school because she feels the children should attend one with "less police around." And of course there is the handsome, single Pastor Dan (John Corbett) for Helen to fall for, who is also the principal of the school.
And of course, the oldest girl, Audrey starts dating the bad boy BZ (Michael Esparza), whom Helen does not approve of and whom Dan confides that he is about to expel from school.
Now, there are moments of originality that I admired. The one that really sticks out for me is Joan Cusack's character of Jenny. In a role that could have been written as a one-dimensional antagonist, instead she is a more fully developed character who only has the best interests of the children in mind and is would rather show Helen how to be a good mother than to steal the children away.
Kate Hudson also turns in a nice performance and manages to convey the stress and raw emotion that her character is experiencing. She works well with what material she has. Being a fan of hers since Almost Famous I hold out hope that she will find another script that allows her to match, or even go beyond her performance as Penny Lane in that film.
Raising Helen is a decent and entertaining film. But in the end, risks aren't taken and there is no real attempts to change the formula it follows so rigidly. In other hands it may have been a more interesting and complicated film.
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