Movies - Saturday, June 27
The Age
Thursday June 25, 2009
Raising Helen (2004)Channel Seven, 7.30pmHELEN (Kate Hudson) is a girl to know in New York. A personal executive at a top model agency, she strides powerfully through a town that bends to her smile and accommodates her desires. She is the antithesis of her sister, Jenny (Joan Cusack), a New Jersey mum with a brood in the house and a kitchen full of fresh bakes. So, when a third sister dies with her husband in a car accident, there seems little doubt that the orphaned children will go to Jenny. But the will says otherwise and Helen finds herself saddled with three kids, all of whom might seem delightful if you didn't have to raise them. One must make special mention of the child actors - Hayden Panettiere as Audrey, Spencer and Abigail Breslin as Henry and the tiny Sarah - because the girls in particular are astonishing. Abigail Breslin is well known to fans of Little Miss Sunshine and is truly remarkable for one so young. She was discovered at age five by M. Night Shyamalan for Signs and was signed up by director Garry Marshall for Raising Helen and The Princess Diaries 2. Panettiere, who plays the girl who cannot die in Heroes, is also an amazing talent. So, if this is a film without a well-written script (it clunks along with very little to say), without a believable romance between Helen and her Lutheran pastor (John Corbett), it never matters when the young actresses are in full flight. An old pro, Marshall does his best to overcome the script deficiencies but can't. However, you have to love a director who refuses to bend to stereotypes. -- SCOTT MURRAY
© 2009 The Age