Raising Helen

Two Stars
Kate Hudson, John Corbett, Joan Cusak

This film, directed by Gary Marshall, is, simply put, too juvenile for it's audience. From the opening scenes it has the feeling of teen movies like Marshalls (far more charming) Princess Diaries. We are led by our hands through the life of the characters. As the film progresses, our independent adult thought is challenged every step of the way by the diluted ignorant ramblings and misgivings of our title charater and lastly we are left with an incredibly quick and overly simplistic resolution to our issues.

Kate Hudson is directed into a hole and is not convincing as a modeling mogul or a mock-up mother. Corbett has lines written by a high school english lit student and is as convincing a Lutheran minister as I am a convincing astronaut.

Lastly the incomparable Joan Cusak is wasted wallowing in agonizingly idiotic dialogue and plot concepts with but a few exceptions where that brash and bold Cusak talent is allowed to shine. This script should have been re-written before principal shooting, they should have gotten Gary's sister Penny to direct, and not relied on editing to turn this "Lizzie McGuire" of a movie into a "Young And The Restless" without getting lost in between.