Raising Helen (2004)

Raising Helen (2004): Dir: Garry Marshall / Cast: Kate Hudson, Joan Cusack, John Corbett, Helen Mirren, Felicity Huffman: Counting the nose hairs of the person sitting next to me at the screening of this boring piece of crap is more entertaining than watching it. Cliché filled boring crap about growing up. It stars Kate Hudson as Helen Harris who works at a modelling agency until given the news that her sister and husband died in a car accident. Or maybe they just realized what a bad career move appearing in this film would be and just plainly skipped town. The three children are left to Helen much to her surprise and that of her older sister who already has children. We can expect difficulties balanced with work and blah, blah, blah who cares. Directed by Garry Marshall who previously made Pretty Woman. His films often examine relationships within work but here his screenplay is by the numbers. Hudson does as expected and it isn't any more exciting than the dozens of others before her who played the same role. Joan Cusack as her older sister is another wasted appearance. John Corbett as Pastor Dan is underwritten. Helen Mirren is wasted as her employer. Felicity Huffman plays Helen's sister and together they are about as interesting as a toothpaste commercial. The responsibility theme is surrenders to stupidity. The film will be lucky if it can raise eye lids let alone Helen. Score: 2 / 10

Kept waiting,and waiting, and waiting but hit the eject after 40 min.of increasing boredom. I love kids and families, not to mention beautiful young women, but this was dumber than Dumb and Dumber. Helen Mirren was super (when has she ever been otherwise). Boggled by those who found the acting and writing wonderful. Both seemed just terrible to me. Sad, because the story had such potential. I guess I needed the rest of the film. I found it totally unbelievable that Helen (the char.) had a successful career but was otherwise such a ditz. It's not like she was a model, she was a fashion executive, fer cryin' out loud, but couldn't remember lunch?

I haven't seen a Kate Hudson movie in a while so I decided to give 'Raising Helen' a chance. I wasn't expecting much as it pretty much seems like a story that has already been told over and over again. And, that is what 'Raising Helen' is. I was pleasantly surprised to see many other talented actresses like Felicity Huffman, Helen Mirren (both these great actresses are grossly wasted) and Joan Cusack (a sheer delight). Sakina Jaffrey plays the funny Indian neighbour quite well. John Corbett plays the male 'lead' but he doesn't have much to do. The child actors are okay (and sometimes annoying, especially the teenager). Kate Hudson does well but I am quite tired of seeing her in the same type of movies. Since an excellent breakthrough performance in 'Almost Famous', she's mostly done these romantic comedy drama type films that seem to belong to the same factory (with the exception of 'Skeleton Key', an awful horror movie). In spite of the done to death formula of the storyline, 'Raising Helen' does have its bright moments especially those between Cusack and Hudson. Clearly, this movie was built for a target audience and while I'm not exactly among that particular target, those who watch it knowing what to expect, might enjoy it. As for me, it wasn't a bad experience as I was multitasking while watching and I managed to enjoy the best moments.

This film is about a young woman unexpectedly becoming a mother of three because her sister died in a traffic accident.I find the script weak and unconvincing. The script tries to examine the difficulty of transition from singlehood to motherhood, family tension, trust and childcare issues. The end result is that the film lack direction and wander around aimlessly. It fails to be funny, romantic or dramatic.Acting has to be applauded though. Joan Cusack does a good job to convey a spectrum of emotions, especially envy. Hayden Panettiere is also very convincing as a rebellious young girl.Overall, I find this film boring and lacklustre.