Raising Helen

views updated

Raising Helen ★★½ 2004 (PG-13)

Helen (Hudson) has a successful, carefree life as a modeling agency exec, and is the favorite “cool” aunt of her sis Lindsay's (Huffman) three kids. However, Helen's shocked when Lindsay and her husband are killed in a car accident and she is given custody of the kids over perfect homemaker sis Jenny (Cusack). Helen soon gets fired, moves from Manhattan to Queens, finds a new job (working for Elizondo), and enrolls the kids at a nearby school run by the single and hunky Pastor Dan (Corbett). Hudson is as winsome as ever, but this is just another notch in her romantic comedy belt and it's alltoofamiliar attire. 119m/C DVD . US Kate Hudson, Joan Cusack, John Corbett, Helen Mirren, Hayden Panettiere, Spencer Breslin, Felicity Huffman, Sean O'Bryan, Hector Elizondo, Sakina Jaffrey, Abigail Breslin, Kevin Kilner; D: Garry Marshall; W: Jack Amiel, Michael Begler; C: Charles Minsky; M: John Debney.