Movie
review: Hudson glows in new romantic comedy
‘Helen’
Touchstone Pictures
Touchstone Pictures
By
Sara Jaurequi
On-line Forty-Niner
Kate
Hudson has a wonderful life. In real life
she’s a movie star who’s married
to a rock star with a brand new baby and
Goldie Hawn for a mother. The life she
leads in her new movie “Raising
Helen” is almost as glamorous. Her
character, Helen, is an executive for
a modeling agency in Manhattan where her
days are full of fashion shows, photo
shoots and supermodels, while her nights
are spent partying at high-class clubs
where she’s always on the guest
list and her date is the best looking
guy in the room. She wears Prada perfectly
and wouldn’t be caught dead without
the newest Dior bag or Jimmy Choo pumps.
Packing
lunches, interviewing prom dates and promiscuous
teens aren’t part of the plan for
Helen and falling in love with a passionate
pastor certainly isn’t in the cards.
But all her plans change when her sister
dies and leaves three kids in Helen’s
care, forcing her to choose between her
“Sex and the City” lifestyle
and the real life responsibilities of
a stand-in mom to her orphaned nieces
and nephew.
“Raising
Helen” is a romantic comedy in the
finest feel-good tradition. Though we
pretty much know what’s coming,
still we laugh and we cry right on cue
as we root for Helen to find a way to
do what’s right by her sister’s
kids, while hopefully holding on to a
life many of us would love to have.
There’s
not a lot new in the movie. We’ve
seen clueless characters in charge of
kids in everything from “Uncle Buck”
to “Big Daddy.” We know going
in that they’ll rise to the challenge
and turn out to be great guardians by
choosing what’s in the best interests
of the kids.
And
of course they’ll fall in love,
and probably live happily ever after.
Even if the relationship between Helen
and the pastor is a bit far-fetched (actor
John Corbett looks a lot more like the
models in Helen’s past life then
any pastor, priest or minister we’ve
ever seen and he’s the principal
of the kids’ school) the romance
grows on us just the same.
But
“Raising Helen” doesn’t
skimp on the comedy. Hudson is a natural
comedian, and the screenwriters give her
some great material to work with. In fact
every character makes us laugh, though
without the three kids the film would
fall flat. Their characters have many
of the funniest scenes. For example, when
the teen girl has a make-out party Helen
has to rely on a no-nonsense neighbor
who uses a bat to clear the room of horny
high school boys.
Of
course the movie has twists and turns.
Helen leaves the kids and gets her old
job back, but though it’s predictable
that Helen will find her former life meaningless
without the kids, we’re still touched
when she realizes she doesn’t want
to live without them. Eventually Helen
drops the “cool Aunt” act,
and becomes the cool mom some of us are
lucky enough to have.
Kate
Hudson’s character has instant motherhood
forced upon her, but the film speaks to
women everywhere faced with choices between
career, family and fun. “Raising
Helen” speaks to the fears and desires,
the fantasies and realities, of all women
who have to live up to the “we can
do it all” super woman image.
Working
all day and partying all night sounds
pretty good from the point of view of
a single college student when the responsibilities
of a real life are still far away, but
we all have to grow up sometime. Of course
in the end Helen gets to keep the kids
and her Jimmy Choos, too. Proving that
Prada and parenthood can both be parts
of a perfect life.
