Kate Hudson wrestles with unlikely motherhood in Raising Helen, a comedy directed with the smooth professionalism of Garry Marshall, the man who brought us such cinematic fairy tales as Pretty Woman and The Princess Diaries. Helen (Hudson, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days) is an adorable hipster whose swift rise up the fashion industry ladder gets sideswiped when she finds herself responsible for raising three children, left in her care by the untimely death of one of her sisters. It's a standard frivolous-girl-grows-up story with an uneven script, but solidly performed by Hudson, John Corbett (My Big Fat Greek Wedding), ever-sexy Helen Mirren (Calendar Girls), and especially Joan Cusack (In and Out, Addams Family Values), who takes an obnoxious, uptight suburban mom and makes her the movie's emotional core. It's a miracle of acting alchemy; Cusack is one of contemporary comedy's most crucial performers. --Bret Fetzer --This text refers to the Theatrical Release edition.

REVIEW

However well "Raising Helen" did in the theaters is incidental. It isn't at the level of a movie worth rushing out to and putting down big cinema dollars. It is worth seeing once, if the price is right.

What's the plot?
A husband and wife pass away quickly as the movie starts. The woman's wish was that one of her sisters, Helen, take care of her three children. The conflict is in that Helen, now in charge, is the least likely of the two sisters. Other sister Jenny is much better at parenting, and has the goods to show for it. No argues this point, but this fact hardly changes how difficult this will make all lives involved.

What's the value?
When considering who should rear her children should she die, Helen's late sister looked at Jenny, her very motherly sister, with a brood of her own, and Helen, the fun-loving young woman. As she chose, she taught both sisters a lesson in parenting, and provided that her children, in the end, would be better off than had Jenny taken them as her own.

It is entertaining enough to watch, but stereotypical scenes and caricatured fashion designers, and a little too secular Lutheran priest (Pastor Dan) all take away from the reality of it all. It is rarely creative, but it is never terrible.

Pastor Dan (John Corbett) successfully show clergy are people too, but he does so at the cost of not being particularly spiritual.

Kate Hudson is adequate as the single girl Helen, but she could have been interchanged easily with Meg Ryan or a younger Daryl Hannah, or even Sandra Bullock. There is little special about Hudson here. Andi McDowell might have been a richer casting choice, providing more depth to Helen's character.

See the movie. You can let your children watch. Just don't go out of your way to do so.

Anthony Trendl