Raising Helenreview by Agnieszka Tennant |
posted 5/28/2004
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As far as heartwarming comedies go, this one has all the parts necessary: the heart, the warmth, and the comedy. At the outset, the storytellers get the heart commiserating with three grieving children—Audrey (Hayden Panettiere), Henry (Spencer Breslin), and Sarah (Abigail Breslin)—when their parents are killed in a car accident. The heart warms as the kids' supercool young aunt gives up her exciting career, and the perks that come with it, to take on the uncool role of the orphaned kids' guardian. The chuckles come easily, even in the predictable moments, as you watch dazzling Helen Harris (Kate Hudson) grow into her new skin.
Helen's choice to take the journey from self-centeredness to selflessness is what distinguishes this film's heroine from those in director Gary Marshall's other romantic comedies, Pretty Woman and The Princess Diaries, where the focus is on the leading lady's needs and wants.
Two God-sent cheerleaders come to Helen's aid as she undergoes her drastic makeover. Those raising Helen are her oldest sister and supermom Jenny (Joan Cusack), who has no problem raising anyone, even her unborn child, and a hunky Lutheran pastor played by John Corbett in the same way he played the hunky fiancé in My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
Although predictable in places, the romantic dramedy represents Hollywood's refreshingly realistic correction of the 20th century feminism: It is possible for unexpected, ill-timed motherhood, with all its emotional and financial hassles, to gratify a woman in a way unsurpassed even by a successful career in the fashion industry, a Manhattan zip code, and lenient sex life. Helen soon learns—as all people raising children do—that she can't have it all. Manhattan gives way to Queens; sleeping with men to sleeping with three children (sometimes literally, in the same bed); nightclub hopping to teaching Sarah how to tie her shoes and shooing teenage boys away from Audrey. The party girl persona must decrease, the Mom persona must increase—and that not without growing pains.
Soon after she gets custody of the children, Helen scrambles to remain the go-getter at her job as assistant to Dominique (Helen Mirren), a high-maintenance head of a modeling agency. Sure enough, she fails. Often delayed or otherwise distracted by her nieces and nephew, she cannot fulfill the caprices of Dominique, in whose brief appearances Mirren is an evil delight. "Fashion and family don't mix," the fashion maven dryly declares. So the kids win. Helen flashes her easy, winsome smile, and gets a much less demanding, but also much less paying, job at a car dealership.
But not all mothering decisions are so easy for Helen. When it comes to disciplining teenager Audrey, Helen just can't bring herself to act or look like a party-pooping parent. That's when she calls her oldest sister Jenny, an obsessively in-charge stay-at-home mother, in which role Cusack showcases her comedic flair. Jenny is openly perplexed, and secretly jealous, at the deceased sister's designation of Helen—the freewheeling anti-Mom who doesn't tell on teenage Audrey after she gets a fake ID—instead of her, as the children's caretaker.
As sisterly rivalry surfaces in the sometimes-charged interactions between Helen and Jenny, the movie gains a convincing emotional texture. But when the mystery of their sister's choice is revealed in letters she had written to the sisters, Jenny, too, will grow as a result.
Pastor Dan seems to be another God-sent helper for Helen in an answer to a prayer she sighs as she's driving in Queens in search for a decent school. But no, scratch it. God would have sent her a pastor who's a little less desperate to prove that not all pastors are pontificators with stained-window voices. Played insipidly by Corbett, the minister is principal of the private school that ends up enrolling the children. Unlike the actor—who told Christianity Today Movies that he's a born-again Christian—Pastor Dan is not forthcoming about his faith. Just the opposite.
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