Raising HelenReviews: Raising Helen
directed by: Garry Marshall Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9780788849305 Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC ISBN: 0788849301 Label: Touchstone / Disney Languages: Manufacturer: Touchstone / Disney Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Touchstone / Disney Release Date: October 12, 2004 Running Time: 119 minutes Studio: Touchstone / Disney Theatrical Release Date: May 28, 2004 Rating:  - Decent Movie About Fun and ResponsibilityHowever well "Raising Helen" did in the theaters is incidental. It isn't at the level of a movie worth rushing out to and putting down big cinema dollars. It is worth seeing once, if the price is right. What's the plot? A husband and wife pass away quickly as the movie starts. The woman's wish was that one of her sisters, Helen, take care of her three children. The conflict is in that Helen, now in charge, is the least likely of the two sisters. Other sister Jenny is much better at parenting, and has the goods to show for it. No argues this point, but this fact hardly changes how difficult this will make all lives involved. What's the value? When considering who should rear her children should she die, Helen's late sister looked at Jenny, her very motherly sister, with a brood of her own, and Helen, the fun-loving young woman. As she chose, she taught both sisters a lesson in parenting, and provided that her children, in the end, would be better off than had Jenny taken them as her own. It is entertaining enough to watch, but stereotypical scenes and caricatured fashion designers, and a little too secular Lutheran priest (Pastor Dan) all take away from the reality of it all. It is rarely creative, but it is never terrible. Pastor Dan (John Corbett) successfully show clergy are people too, but he does so at the cost of not being particularly spiritual. Kate Hudson is adequate as the single girl Helen, but she could have been interchanged easily with Meg Ryan or a younger Daryl Hannah, or even Sandra Bullock. There is little special about Hudson here. Andi McDowell might have been a richer casting choice, providing more depth to Helen's character. See the movie. You can let your children watch. Just don't go out of your way to do so. Anthony Trendl editor, HungarianBookstore.com Rating:  - Some good actors wasted in a DISHONEST movieThis movie is really pretty bad on quite a few levels. It deals with a wreckless, crazy, party/career girl suddenly faced with raising three childred because her (apparently insane) sister "willed" the kids to the party girl instead of her uptight but reliable other sister. We're supposed to find this plausible. We do not. However, let's suppose we suspend that disbelief (surely it's no harder to do than believing Jennifer Garner could go from 13 to 30 in an instant...a far superior movie, by the way). We are nonetheless faced with a family that has lost not only its mother, but its father as well, in one horrible accident (funny, huh?) The kids do grapple with the grief a little bit, but most get over it pretty quickly so the movie can go back to being cute. I couldn't help but keep thinking of the horror these kids were enduring...losing both parents and having to move into a smaller abode in a city they DON'T know with an aunt they barely know. Didn't seem to bother them. Kate Hudson, the cooky sister, gets the kids into a private, parochial school, headed by Paster John Corbett (late of MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING). Corbett is a fair enough actor and has charm, but we're supposed to believe that a man of the cloth who has dedicated his career to the church, would be interested in a non-believer, non-church goer like Hudson without having one tiny concern that if they became a couple, it would NOT look good for him in his congregation. But then again, aside from blessing some animals at a zoo, his religion is pretty much confined to the white collar around his neck. When I say the movie is dishonest, that's why. It doesn't honestly portray the way people would behave. Many movies do this, but this movie wants us to believe it's making a statement about the power of love, our ability to change and grow, etc. etc. Bull! The movie gets one star, except for the presence of the always outstanding Joan Cusack. We're used to her being a uptight, crazy character (SCHOOL OF ROCK jumps right to mind) but here she plays a tightly wound mother, who ought to be a big pain in the rear, but actually shows how motherhood wrenches sacrifices from us and how we make those sacrifices willingly. We see the idea that you aren't supposed to be the best friends of your kids...you're supposed to be their parents. Cusack is a totally believable mother. She acts the role with great specificity and invests her acting with more talent than much of the rest of the cast combined. Of course, most people want to see this for the "charm" of Kate Hudson. Well, she's almost worn out her welcome. Like most others, I was captivated by her in ALMOST FAMOUS. I forgave her for being in HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS (or whatever it was called) because she still was fresh and charming. But in LE DIVORCE, the reprehensibly boring ALEX & EMMA and now RAISING HELEN, her charm (which never seems to vary) has worn out its welcome. She might have some talent, but she badly needs a role to show some more sides of her character. PS: Helen Mirren and Felicity Huffman are two more terrific actresses who appear in small roles, presumably for nice sized paychecks. Fans of them will have little to rejoice over here. Rating: - I'm shocked that so many people liked this movieIt's hard to say where the problem lies with this movie -- the writing, the EDITING, the acting, the casting, the EDITING, the directing, the EDITING...did I mention that the scenes that would have made sense of the story were apparently edited out? Example: there's a discussion of a house that's been left in trust -- including discussion of large mortgage -- but no mention after that conversation of what has been done with said house. Helen (left to raise her sister's 3 children) can't afford to rent a place big enough for all of them (heaven forbid she should leave NYC and live in the NJ house like half the people employed in NYC do) but when she puts the children into private school, doesn't even discuss the cost of tuition and assures the principal that she'll be able to cover it. HUH? If she's got that kind of money, why doesn't she spend it renting a larger apartment? And if she kept the house in NJ, she could save money on private school tuition (surely enough to pay the mortgage?) and send the kids to public school. Then there's a scene where Helen's romantic interest (the school's principal, creating some ethical boundary issues that are ignored) agrees to meet her someplace. We see Helen and her sister at the meeting place, but the next place we see the principal is back at the apartment. What was the point of having him say he'd meet her there and then not having him at the meeting place? Finally, I thought Helen was an idiot (although very pretty). I couldn't imagine someone whose sister had just died much caring if she could still fit into a size 2. And her general wussiness was irritating -- hard to imagine how she'd survive in the business world with so little backbone. I'm probably going to make the people who liked this film angry with this review, but be warned -- this is a very silly movie with a not very appealing lead (unless you like a pretty face and a size 2 bod). Rating:  - Raising Helen is such a great movie! Raising Helen was great! I saw it first at the movie theatre and then I got the DVD for Christmas (YAY!). I really liked this movie .It had all the elements you could ask for in a movie.It made me laugh and cry.There are lots of jokes and there are also a lot of sad points. Gary Marshall did a great job. He also directed the 2 Princess Diaries movies so be on the look out for characters from that series in Raising Helen.You will definately enjoy this movie! This will be a classic for years! Rating: - i really WANT to love this movie but...Got a gaggle over and need entertainment that won't compete with the glow and chatting of that sex-toy party? "Raising Helen" is available! Plot in snapshot: There once were three sisters. The eldest and youngest share a devil-may-care attitude envied and misunderstood by the middle sister. Youngest sister is Manhattan fashionista with size-2 anorexia and condoms in the bedside table. Eldest sister and husband die and SURPRISE! leave her three children to be raised by the sister in the studio apartment, not by the suburban floral-mom-on-roids. Challenges erupt for the new family, who begin to bond with the help of a hornball-with-a-heart-of gold preacher. New head of family gives up, then sees the light and is "raised." Halleluia. The movie is just long enough for me to conclude that Kate Hudson, in the eponymous role, is a technically better actress than her mother, but lacks in the je-ne-se-blah-blah that made her mother famous. She smiles, she pouts, she twirls and cries when necessary, but never quite hits a depth of soul that convinces me those kids are better off with her. John Corbet's "sexy man of god" has me thinking of Lutherans in ways never evoked by Garrison Keeler. As an actor, he's obviously taking advantage of his recent success as a sensitive love-interest in "Greek Wedding" and "Sex in the City" (since let's face it, he did not convince as a caste-loving real-estate developer in "Volcano"). But he cannot make this character real, as much as I want to believe that a sexy, sensitive minister has been deflecting female attention all these years just waiting for a ditsy, shallow hottie with an attitude problem and a penchant for bad lying. Felicity Huffman is wasted in the minimalist dead beatific sister role. Joan Cusack, whom I adore, takes her part a touch too far - she has a hard time not making the Type-A "spent my youth raising your ditsy, shallow hottie ass" part a caricature. Her emoting made it difficult for me to empathize with her through most of the film. However, back to the sex toy party. If you're not looking for surprises or depth or intellectual stimulation and want to be distracted for a little while by beautiful people in impossibly beautiful jobs and end the night saying, "Aw, that was so sweet, " then watch "Raising Helen." And buy a Lutheran Special. Raising Helen ReviewsMore reviews:Buy Raising Helen Sale Reviews Deals
Raising Helen
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