Raising Helen: Movie, DVD Review

Directed by Garry Marshall, written by Jack Amiel and Michael Begler, 119 minutes, rated PG-13.

(Originally published 2004)

Garry Marshall’s “Raising Helen” stars Kate Hudson as Helen Harris, a savvy, New York fashionista relentlessly on the corporate climb and forever on the go.

She’s a free swinging single, an executive assistant at a Manhattan-based modeling agency pushing to become a full-fledged agent, which she proves she has the moxie to do. With ease, Helen juggles supermodels, photo shoots, egos and runways as well as calls from Paris and Milan. She knows the right people, she has enough charm to be disarming, and most importantly, she has the support of Dominque (Helen Mirren), her icy boss with the chunky jewelry and severe hair who is so thin, she makes Vogue’s Anna Wintour look downright Rubenesque in comparison.

Helen has the instincts of a corporate success, not a successful mother. Still, when her sister and brother-in-law are killed in a car wreck, it’s she—not her supermom sister, Jennie (Joan Cusack)—who is chosen to be the guardian of her sister’s three children (Hayden Panettiere, Spencer Breslin, Abigail Breslin). What’s the logic behind that, you might ask? Well, for starters, there wouldn’t be a movie without the plot twist.

As written by Jack Amiel and Michael Begler, “Raising Helen” follows Helen and the three kids from the bright lights of Manhattan to the cheaper flats of Queens, where they’re all given a dose of the “real world” when Helen loses her job thanks to Dominique’s belief that “children and fashion don’t mix.”

What’s a girl to do? Naturally, hook up with a strapping Lutheran minister played by John Corbett (“My Big Fat Greek Wedding”), who notes after Helen’s initial rejection of him that “I’m a sexy man of God, and I know it.” Miraculously, thunder doesn’t clap.

Also miraculous is that “Raising Helen” isn’t as bad as it sounds. Some real parents will marvel that in Helen’s world, all familial troubles--great and small--are vanquished with sitcom ease. Still, the kids are cute, some of the throwaway lines pack a surprising wit, and it never sinks to the lows achieved in Hudson’s more recent films, “Alex & Emma” and the woeful “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.”

Grade: C+