Raising Helen (2004)

Director:

Garry Marshall

Writers (WGA):

Patrick J. Clifton (story) &
Beth Rigazio (story) ...

Release Date:

28 May 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Helen help us.

Plot:

After her sister and brother-in-law die in a car accident, a young woman becomes the guardian of their three children.

Plot Keywords:

Love | Fashion Designer | Sign Of The Cross | Custody | Fish Out Of Water

Awards:

1 nomination

US TV Schedule:

Sat. Aug. 30	8:00 PM	OXYGEN
Sat. Aug. 30	10:30 PM	OXYGEN

Cast

Kate Hudson	...	Helen Harris
John Corbett	...	Pastor Dan Parker
Joan Cusack	...	Jenny Portman
Hayden Panettiere	...	Audrey Davis
Spencer Breslin	...	Henry Davis
Abigail Breslin	...	Sarah Davis
Helen Mirren	...	Dominique
Sakina Jaffrey	...	Nilma Prasad
Kevin Kilner	...	Ed Portman
Felicity Huffman	...	Lindsay Davis
Sean O'Bryan	...	Paul Davis
Amber Valletta	...	Martina
Ethan Browne	...	Devon
Michael Esparza	...	BZ
Katie Carr	...	Caitlin

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for thematic issues involving teens.

Runtime:

119 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Brazil:Livre | Iceland:L | USA:PG-13 (certificate #40251) | Ireland:12 | Malaysia:U | Finland:K-3 | South Korea:12 | Argentina:Atp | Australia:PG | Canada:PG | Chile:TE | Germany:o.Al. | Netherlands:AL | Philippines:G | Singapore:PG | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Forest Hills, Queens, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Touchstone Pictures

Trivia:

Kate Hudson was pregnant during part of the filming. In the scene at the end of the film, she subconsciously touches her midriff as she walks.

Goofs:

When Helen goes to the church to meet Pastor Dan before going to the hockey game, the cleaning lady stops vacuuming and walks away twice - once when Helen walks up the first time, and again when Pastor Dan sees her and she turns and trips.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Club Doorman: What we got here; 1,2,3,4 - 4 beautiful ladies. Come on. Cesar let them in. Nice. Not you, too random.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in On the Set: Raising Helen (2004) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Chori Chori Gori Se

utterly artificial slice-of-life comedy

"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.