Film Review

 

Raising Helen (PG)
dir. Garry Marshal, 2004
starring Kate Hudson, John Corbett & Joan Cusack, with Helen Mirrenf

Raising Helen is a tedious comedy about a Carrie Bradshaw type, played by Kate Hudson, who is suddenly entrusted with three young children.

The children’s parents have just died, but the film largely ignores their tragedy, focussing instead on our heroine’s hardships as she loses her swanky job and is forced to move to Queens.

The screenplay is by two men, and it shows, as the underlying assumption seems to be that women who have jobs are self-centred career bitches, who might eventually be persuaded to tolerate children.

There are a few funny moments, albeit mostly unintentional; my favourite was the declaration by John Corbett’s trendy vicar: “I am sexy. I am a sexy man of God!”

David Haviland, 25.08.04