Type Title Author/Director/Developer Date Rating Movie Raising Helen Garry Marshall 2005-05-15

Review

Raising Helen is about a woman named Helen Harris (played by Kate Hudson) who lives the glamorous single life working at an modeling agency, hobnobbing at parties and travelling the globe. She has 2 sisters, both of which have families and children. One of her sisters, Jenny, played by Joan Cusack, is critical of her lifestyle, admonishing her to settle down and start a family. Suddenly her other sister and brother-in-law die in a car accident leaving their children parent-less. The “crazy” thing is that the recently-dead sister had in her will assigned guardianship of the childen to Helen and not Jenny, the responsible one. Sigh.

At this point the entire movie becomes clear. It folds out in a completely uninspired way and doesn’t deviate at all from what you might expect. This might be alright if the dialog were top notch, but sadly it just wasn’t so. Kate Hudson is reasonable, but the script doesn’t tax any of the actors and just plods along at a completely predictable rate. I bet you can’t guess who has a change of heart. And who realizes her sister may be different but isn’t totally irresponsible. Blech. Predictable and banal. Avoid if possible.