Raising Helen Movie Review:


The first rule of Mom Club is: don’t talk about Mom Club to wannabes afraid of using tough love in dealing with their kids. Mom Club members recognize each other without any secret handshakes or passwords. They simply sense who belongs and who doesn’t. In “Raising Helen,” the character played by Kate Hudson is obviously a poor candidate for Mom Club membership – while her no-nonsense older sister, as portrayed by Joan Cusack, could be the High Priestess of the group.

So why would the third sister (Felicity Huffman) pick Hudson and not Cusack to raise her children should she and her husband die before they’re grown? A mystery indeed, but one that’s solved quite satisfactorily at the conclusion of this endearing film.

“Fashion and family don’t mix,” the ultra-sophisticated head of a model agency (Helen Mirren) tells assistant Helen Harris (Hudson). That’s what worries Helen, an ambitious career woman who’s been appointed guardian of three children after her sister’s fatal car accident. Played delightfully by Hudson, Helen is immensely watchable as she struggles with the added responsibilities of caring for her nieces and nephew while trying to keep a lucrative position in the glamorous world of fashion.

Parenthood is difficult enough when children come one at a time and you have a spouse to shoulder part of the work. But Helen becomes a single parent of a trio of youngsters overnight – each one with special needs and problems. Almost miraculously, our heroine receives help from a handsome pastor (John Corbett), the principal of a Lutheran school in which she enrolls her new charges. One of the movie’s most amusing scenes shows Helen trying to convince the pastor that she and the children are Lutherans. “We’ll have to take a blood test to make sure,” teases Pastor Dan who’s clearly smitten by her. “All three of them are hemophiliacs,” Helen replies, not realizing he’s joking. Silly, I know, but Hudson has a knack for making lines like this believable.

Romance blooms between Helen and Pastor Dan despite interruptions from a rebellious teenage girl (Hayden Panetierre), a morose pre-teen boy (Spencer Breslin) and their darling little sister (Abigail Breslin) who’s obsessed about learning how to tie her shoes. Unfortunately, everything comes to a head when the teenager engages in risk-taking behavior that could lead to serious trouble. Who’s Helen gonna call? A Mom Club member, of course. And maybe, just maybe, she’ll finally become one herself.

Hudson and Corbett project a sweet chemistry together as a romantic couple, and Cusack should get an Oscar nomination for her supporting work here. Her SuperMom scowls and tirades are absolutely priceless! My only complaint? The elegant Mirren has too few scenes.

“Raising Helen” emphasizes humanistic values while offering appealing characters and amusing dialogue. It’s the kind of comedy that makes you think as well as laugh. My family and I found watching this movie a wonderful way to spend Mother’s Day.

(Reviewed after the Mother’s Day Sneak Preview on May 9, 2004)

Betty Jo Tucker

Still grieving from the accidental death of her sister Lindsay (Huffman) and her husband, Helen (Hudson) is shocked to find out that her sister’s will stipulates that she will be given sole guardianship of their three children Audrey (Panettiere), Henry (Spencer Breslin) and Sarah (Abigail Breslin). Helen thought they would go to her super-Mum sister Jenny (Cusack) but it seems like her sister had other ideas. So instead of been the modelling agent and New York socialite she dreamed of been, Helen is now an instant mother with all the responsibilities that come with it.

The comparisons between Kate Hudson and her mother Goldie Hawn become justified as this movie could have easily been made by either of them. The problem is that neither of them could have saved it.

Director Garry Marshall’s (Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride) latest is a story about coping responsibility that is filled with sentimentally and cliché, all coated with a liberal sprinkling of sugar. From the off you are pounded with an emotion bombardment, from the perfect family so tragically devastated to a little girl struggling to remember how her now departed mother taught her to tie her shoelaces, all with the hope of drawing you into Helen’s predictament and understanding the wayward reaction of the kids to their new circumstances. While it does succeed in producing a certain level of sympathy for both Helen and the kids, you can’t help thinking that the reactions of both of them in real life would have been more severe. None of them truly show any real devastation at such a traumatic loss with the film just showing you the Hollywood version of grief.

Kate Hudson career seems to be heading down the same route as her mother’s. After a more serious start she has chosen a more lighthearted road by planting herself in her mother’s speciality, romantic dramas and comedies. While there is no denying that she has a gift from these particular genres, her more dramatic talents seem to be going to waste. See needs to show what she can do and escape from her mother’s rather large shadow.

John Corbett has also carved a niche for himself as the female lead’s love interest but he is far too old to be dating Hudson’s character (there are eighteen years between them in real life). It seems that Helen is supposed to be older than Hudson actually is but he still looks far too old for her.

Joan Cusack is as good as ever however, playing a role that she could make her own in her sleep. She is one of those actresses that that always grabs your attention in which ever part she plays but never really receives the plaudits she so rightly deserves.

Hayden Panettiere, Spencer Breslin and Abigail Breslin are very watchable as the loveable kids with Panettiere getting the chance to slightly act out as a sugary version of a troublesome teen.

Raising Helen is just far too sugar coated to do any justice to the subject matter. This could have been an interesting insight into the trauma of such profound loss but what we end up with is a Hollywood version of grief that ends in happily ever after.

Star Rating = * *

Jamie Kelwick

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