It's a tricky business creating a film whose sole purpose is to tug at heartstrings. It has to comfortably and naturally weave its way through the realms of comedy and drama, a task that, as Raising Helen demonstrates, can be one tough mother.
Kate Hudson plays Helen, a fun-loving but career-minded woman with no business in this sort of film unless she's destined to receive a life-altering lesson in wholesome family values. That lesson comes in the form of three children, placed in her custody following her sister's death. Sure, Helen's other sister, the responsible, if somewhat uptight, Jenny (Joan Cusack), is the more logical choice for a legal guardian, but what kind of movie would that have been? The deceased mother does offer some posthumous explanation for her bizarre choice with the lyrics of Devo's "Whip It." That's right: the futures of three children decided by a one-hit-wonder '80s band.
Once Helen has the kids, the film unsuccessfully struggles to transition smoothly between silly scenes of Helen adapting to motherhood and depressing scenes of the children adapting to the loss of their parents. There's also a love story between Helen and Pastor Dan (My Big Fat Greek Wedding's ever-likable John Corbett), but it doesn't really have anything to do with the rest of the movie. I guess after making Pretty Woman and Runaway Bride, director Garry Marshall couldn't handle making a film without a love-interest montage.
There are moments that work. Cusack often is amusing as a somewhat overbearing mother who chastises her unborn child in utero because, "It's never too early to teach good manners." Sakina Jaffrey also is hilarious as the next-door neighbor who commands motherly respect with the wave of her baseball bat. But these moments are lost in a sea of clichés.
As one expects with these types of films, Helen loses the children, and after learning how empty her life is without them, must fight to get them back. And just when you might be wondering if they are, indeed, better off without her, the script manifests all three children so Helen can demonstrate her unlikely maternal prowess with one after another.
Overall, Raising Helen is generally inoffensive fluff, and less-discerning viewers may even buy into its lukewarm sentiment. As for me, my mother taught me better.