Cast: Kate Hudson, John Corbett, Joan Cusack
Director: Garry Marshall

Lowering Expectations

By Nicole Wong • UrbanWire
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Realising that Raising Helen was directed by Garry Marshall of Pretty Woman and Princess Diaries fame, I expected yet another light but brilliantly entertaining film. However, with Raising Helen, this was certainly not the case.

Kate Hudson plays Helen Harris, a high-flying, high-heel tottering, about-to-be-promoted executive assistant at a top modelling agency in New York. While Helen lives the life of a Manhattan socialite with a disposable income, her older sisters Lindsay Davis (Felicity Huffman) and Jenny Portman (Joan Cusack) live in the New Jersey suburbs, with Lindsay being part of a perfect American family and Jenny being a potpourri-loving super-mom respectively.

Helen’s wild carefree days come to an abrupt halt when Lindsay and her husband pass away in a car accident, leaving her legal guardian of their three orphaned children.

This is an unlikely nomination, considering Helen’s older sister Jenny is much more responsible than Helen, who soon realises that as shrewd and savvy as she is, bringing up grieving children is a totally new ball game.

Hmm, why does it seem so familiar? Oh wait, there are a few movies out there with a similar “grown-up suddenly has to take care of someone else’s kids and ends up learning life lessons” storyline, like John Candy’s Uncle Buck, the ensemble Three Men and a Baby and Adam Sandler’s Big Daddy.

Only this is a romantic comedy, so in between growing up while raising her nieces and nephew, Helen deals with a growing conflict with Jenny, who felt snubbed when Lindsay chose Helen over herself as guardian of the kids, as well as a rather stilted romance with the Principal of her charges’ new school, Pastor Dan (John Corbett).

Also famously known as “Aidan” in cult American comedy Sex and the City, Corbett gives a generally pleasant performance as the sweet, persistent Pastor Dan until he delivered a goose bump-inducing line, “I am a sexy man of God and I know it.”

Although Raising Helen deals with certain important issues like grieving, depressed children, teenage rebellion, and the complexities of being a working mother, the film seems to merely gloss over the issues, resolving them quickly with sudden moments of enlightenment. And though the guest appearance by Paris Hilton could be somewhat of a crowd-drawer, it just serves to cheapen this movie.

Given the weak script, Hudson has once again landed another film that does no justice to the talents we saw in Almost Famous. Call me picky, but with at least 20 years of directing experience in his bag, Garry Marshall should at least have shown some kind of improvement from his Hallmark moments fare. Sure, Pretty Woman and even the recent Princess Diaries are clichéd but at least the former is charming and has the incomparable Julia Roberts and the latter’s an adaptation from a less than brilliant book. Raising Helen, on the other hand, just appears to be yet another unoriginal movie made for the sole purpose of milking our money with tear-jerking moments, a moral at the end of the story and a relatively good-looking, credible cast.

Besides trying to pass off an overused premise with no obvious effort in trying to jazz it up, the movie tries to milk its cast’s celebrity value. It obviously tries to draw on Hudson’s fan base while trying to give the movie more credibility than it is worth by roping in Cusack. And then there’s Paris Hilton who is just there as a cheap publicity act.

Kudos to the kids though. Hayden Panettiere, Spencer Breslin and Abigail Breslin (the latter 2 are real-life siblings) are very believable as rebellious teen Audrey, poker-face joker Henry and adorable, precocious little Sarah respectively. Cusack’s performance as highly-strung perfectionist super-mom Jenny is also, as usual, delivered to hilarious perfection.

If you’re looking for a movie with a plot, this isn’t it. If you go with low expectations however, and if you can look past the clichés of this movie, you’ll find a fluffy feel-good tale with plenty of laughs.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

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