May 28, 2004 | Think of it as
the movie-marketing version of bait and switch. The lobby posters and
newspaper ads for Raising
Helen show Kate Hudson looking smiley and sassy, and more than
a little sexy, in a reclining position that emphasizes her prominent
assets. The provocative pose appears to promise something in the same
saucy vein as last year's How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days , a glossy
romantic comedy that also showcased Hudson . But that promise isn't fulfilled.
Instead, Raising Helen turns out to be an undemandingly pleasurable
but instantly forgettable comedy-drama about a self-absorbed Manhattan
career woman who grapples with the responsibilities of instant motherhood.
Even though it's rated PG-13, it's fairly innocuous family-friendly entertainment,
scarcely more salacious than a Disney Channel sitcom. And yet it's being
promoted with an advertising come-on that likely will turn off the very
audiences that might enjoy it most. Meanwhile, the folks who are attracted
by the ads will… well, let's just say they'll be less than satisfied.
Smoothly directed by Garry Marshall ( Pretty Woman , The
Princess Diaries ), Raising Helen is yet another feel-good
confection about an upscale workaholic who must detour from the rat
race to find true happiness. You've seen this movie many times before,
under many different titles – a few weeks ago, it was called Jersey
Girl – but if you like this sort of thing, this is the sort of
thing you'll like, especially if you're looking for something you can
see with your children and your parents. Indeed, in the very
next edition of Webster's Movie Dictionary , you'll probably
see a still from Raising Helen next to the definition of “pleasant.”
Helen Harris (Hudson) -- personal assistant to Dominique (Helen Mirren),
queenly head of a Manhattan modeling agency -- is a go-go go-getter whose
fast track leads through fashion shows, photo shoots and trendy nightclubs.
In this, she is the polar opposite of her oldest sister, Jenny (Joan
Cusack), a neo-Stepford Wife who approaches her duties as mother and
homemaker with a rigor that borders on the control-freakish.
After their sister and brother-in-law are
killed in an off-screen auto mishap, Jenny automatically assumes that
she, not Helen, will be granted custody of late couple's offspring
when the final will and testament is read. But no: Their sister (fleetingly
played by Felicity Huffman) assumed, perhaps rightly, that her children – boy-crazy adolescent Audrey
(Hayden Panettiere), husky youngster Henry (Spencer Breslin) and moody
moppet Sarah (Abigail Breslin, Spencer's real-life sibling) – would be
better off with a surrogate mom who's not quite so tightly wound. Which
is why the kids wind up with Aunt Helen.
Naturally, the new responsibilities place a severe crimp on Helen's
party-hearty lifestyle. Just as naturally, she very quickly loses her
prestigious job after she's forced to bring the children with her to
a major fashion show. (Judging from this movie and Jersey Girl ,
there's a serious lack of babysitters in the Manhattan area. Employment
counselors, take note.) Helen takes the setbacks in stride, however,
and moves with the kids to a cheaper, roomier apartment in Queens , where
she eventually finds work at a used-car dealership.
To their credit, screenwriters Jack Amiel and Michael Begler are refreshingly
realistic about socioeconomic details that too often are glossed over
(or totally ignored) in lightweight comedy-dramas of this sort. And Marshall
earns points for his slightly bemused but mostly mater-of-fact approach
to developing a romance between Helen and a hunky Lutheran pastor (an
agreeable John Corbett) who just happens to be principal of the private
school where she enrolls the children.
In most other respects, however, Raising Helen is
thoroughly predictable as it charts Helen's evolution from blithely
indulgent aunt to tough-loving mother. The funny bits prompt many chuckles,
but relatively few big laughs. Worse, the movie's final third has a
drearily moralizing air as Cusack's Jenny, a character who's played
for cheap laughs in early scenes, gradually emerges as a dead-serious
and ineffably smug role model for the heretofore frivolous Helen. The
underlying message – Helen shouldn't
try to be a friend to the kids, she should be a mother who sets rules
and restrictions – wouldn't have been out of place in a '60s Disney comedy
starring Fred MacMurray or Dean Jones. And while it may be a valid life
lesson, it's presented here with a heavy hand and a lecturing tone.
Fortunately for all parties concerned, Hudson
generates enough good will in the first two-thirds to offset the sporadic
preachiness. She's effortlessly engaging in a performance that's short
on broad brushstrokes – she takes
only one pratfall in the entire movie – and rich in sprightly charm. It
will be hard to find someone equally appealing if, as seems all too likely, Raising
Helen spawns a TV sitcom spin-off.