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source: Raising Helen

This is truly a charming film that, at its root, deals with the topic of life choices. Kate Hudson (Helen) must bear the burden of raising her recently deceased sister's children. The odds are stacked against her, and everyone around her is telling her she will fail. In truth, Helen has to make the choice of whether she wants to live one lifestyle or another. This movie shows us that life can throw some difficult things our way. Many times, we are reluctant to accept what we are given, and reject our circumstances as "unfair". Helen does this - and gradually changes her mind over time. This is not a "happily-ever-after" movie. This is a movie about playing the hand we're dealt. Kate Hudson does an excellent job of showing us the inner struggle she fights as she tries to deal with her new circumstances using her old ways of living. She gradually sees that she must change herself at the core - and then she can rise to the challenge that life has thrown at her. John Corbett (Pastor Dan) starts out very convincingly - I am acquainted with many pastors who are also "normal people", and John portrays this very well. We could use more men of God like the character that John portrays. He ends up playing the assistant and boyfriend, instead of the commanding pastor. This helps Helen's character, but I felt it somewhat belittled the pastor role a bit. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it just seemed a bit out of touch for me. No matter, it strengthened Helen's character, which was the main character anyway. If you have teenagers, you will want to watch this with them. There is an unspoken gap between teens and parents that is well addressed in this movie. Joan Cusack (Jenny) does an excellent job, as usual. Although Jenny's true inner turmoil doesn't come out until they talk near the end, you can see it from the very beginning. Having come from a similar situation, I can say that Joan plays this role PERFECTLY. No wonder she's one of my favorite actresses. What we end up seeing is a real family with real problems, and a real resolution. OK, true, the circumstances are extreme, but hey, it's a movie! We are entertained by the circumstances that are a bit off the beaten path, but still employ good, human feelings and actions that we can identify with. I felt the movie was a bit long - at one point, I looked down at my watch and wondered how many hours I'd been watching this. It is possible that some scenes could have been edited for better flow. However, I never felt the need to pause it and go for a snack, so it held my attention quite well. I give this movie an 8 for entertainment - and that's quite a high ranking coming from a person who usually watches action, adventure, fantasy, and comedy movies. For Values, I give it a 9. If you question this, watch the last 20 minutes again and ask yourself what has happened with the characters that you would not want to model in your children. For acting, an 8, for pacing, a 6, giving this movie an 8 overall. While I would generally categorize this movie of the "chick flick" genre, I must say that it touched my heart and had me in tears in a few spots. Nice work, Garry Marshall. I'm not an easy touch.

Without Joan Cusak, this film is a 3. Kate is cute but that is not enough. The concept is almost absurd. The only conflict is that who gets the kids. No tragedy or difficult conflict beyond the deaths at the beginning. This movie really should have been rated PG as nothing remotely offensive occurs that an 8 year old could not view. The whole script was predictable from the 20 minute mark. This movie is a waste of three talented actors as the script is very lacking, and even when it hits on some salient points it flounders. For example the scene at the hotel on prom night was a serious miss. Unless you have young children and want to have the conversation about what happens if mommy and daddy die then I recommend saving the 2 hours and find something else to do.

The story of three kids being given to an unqualified relative has been repeated countless number of times. This time however, Raising Helen gives the story a nice turn. The story is predictable...and yet..thoroughly refreshing. Kate Hudson has done a fantastic job and John Corbett looks dashing as usual. The child actors are really good and the story pretty funny. It's an honest attempt to make a good feel-good movie. Joan Cusack is her usual great self...and adds a touch of reality to her character. All in all...this movie's worth a watch, especially for those who like watching a feel-good romantic comedy!The Asian neighbour and Kate's boss at the modelling agency have done justice to their characters. Kate Hudson is definitely someone to watch out for...she's going places!

You know when your mum's about to reveal a long-buried embarrassment from your past to your new girlfriend or when your old man heads towards the dance floor at a family wedding? That's the feeling you get from watching this movie. A young woman learns about responsibility from her dead sister's deadly dull kids. Hold the front page. She meets a nice guy but plays it cool. Hold the next page. The teenage girl has a couple of tantrums, the cute moppet learns to tie her shoelaces and the tubby middle kid sort of mopes around a bit. Hold everything and dump the whole issue. The sentiments and dialogue are so far off the pulse that you can see the liver spots. How could that happen with a hip 'n' groovy director like 70-year-old Garry Marshall? Ah... Vanilla stars like Hudson and John Corbett don't help, but Joan Cusack can usually be relied upon to put a spark into the dreariest of scripts. Sadly, even she can't rouse this script victim from its coma.

When i say this is a movie movie, what i mean is it's one of those movies perfect for what i would say movies are made for. Movies in my opinion are best for sitting in front of TV with a bunch of friends or family and just watching having a laugh and having a good time. This does that. This movie is about a girl named Helen, who lives an out there life trying to raise kids. She tries so hard to do the best job but it's real tough, as she know nothing about kids, or being a mother. as i said before this is a good relaxing movie movie. I would recommend it to any one one wanting nothing to intense, or boring, or dramatic.

"Raising Helen" is a formulaic romantic comedy that makes you wonder when Kate Hudson will again find a role that will actually allow her to stretch herself as an actress, fulfilling the promise she made half a decade ago in "Almost Famous." Since then it's been mostly downhill for Hudson, and the ironically titled "Raising Helen" does nothing to help arrest or reverse that slide. Hudson plays Helen Harris, a young woman whose budding career in the fashion industry is suddenly cut short when her sister and brother-in-law are killed in a car accident, leaving Helen to raise their three children. Things go from bad to worse, as the once carefree Helen struggles with the trials and tribulations and life-changing vicissitudes of unplanned motherhood. This is a typical Garry Marshall film in that, even when it tries to deal with "real world" issues such as death, loss, grief, sibling rivalry, teenage angst etc., it does so in only the most superficial, glossy and unconvincing of terms. Heck, there's even a hunky, hockey-playing Lutheran minister on hand - the kind one can only find in movies - to provide spiritual as well as romantic comfort for those times when the going gets to be just a bit too tough for the harried guardian. The performances are uniformly uninteresting, but I choose to blame the shallow writing rather than the actors in this case. It's particularly painful to see actresses of the caliber of Felicity Huffman and Joan Cusack cast adrift in this sea of "chick flick" platitudes and feel-good movie clichés - but everyone in this film suffers a similar fate.

This is a must see movie! The whole family will enjoy it. Kate Hudson is enjoyable to watch. John Corbett was a good leading man for her. Good writing, directing, acting. Joan Cusack makes it a complete sweet dramatic comedy. The kids were well chosen for this, they are all good actors! Abigail Breslin is such a cutie in this. I liked the Pastor being portrayed as a regular guy, a real person, with normal desires, Yet he was still a good pastor, a spiritual leader that could be trusted. This movie reminds us that getting back to the things in life that are important is what makes our lives rich & happy.

I loved Kate Hudson in Almost Famous, and a few people told me this film was good, so we rented it. We did enjoy it. It had some very funny moments, and some very tender moments. Kate Hudson was good, but don't expect "Almost Famous" style brilliance out of her in this one. The rest of the cast performs about the same -- good performances, nothing stellar. Except perhaps Joan Cusack; her performance was very good. If you have kids, say, about ten years old and older this is a good film to watch together with them -- it introduces them to a few teen and adult issues (dating, death, etc.) and shows the sorts of tough decisions that parents sometimes have to make. And you'll have lots of fun laughing together too.