Raising Helen (2004)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

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:

Fashion Show | Pastor | Love | Fashion Designer | Blessing

Awards:

1 nomination

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:

Malaysia:U | Brazil:Livre | Iceland:L | Ireland:12 | Finland:K-3 | South Korea:12 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #40251) | 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:

The Referee for Pastor Dan's Hockey game is introduced as former Olympic skater Scotty Buttons. His name is a combination of the names Scott Hamilton and Dick Button. Both Hamilton and Button were past Gold Medal winners in the Olympics for the United States.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Helen stops at the magazine stand and sees Tinka on the front of the magazine, her bag moves from her shoulder to her arm depending on which camera angle it is taken from.

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:

References The Exorcist (1973)

Soundtrack:

Never Be The Same

How to lose the will to live in two hours

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.