'Raising Helen' proves again Kate Hudson should pick better roles

By Jack Garner
Gannett News Service

RAISING HELEN (PG-13) Two Stars (Fair) A predictable romantic comedy about a hard-partying Manhattan career girl who is challenged to give it all up so she can raise her just-orphaned nieces and nephew. Kate Hudson stars in a cutesy-comic role not unlike the stuff her mother, Goldie Hawn, played 20 years earlier. Joan Cusack and John Corbett co-star for veteran director Garry Marshall. Touchstone, 119 minutes.

First, there was "Jersey Girl's" Ben Affleck, giving up a fast-rising publicist career in Manhattan to raise his kid as a street sweeper in New Jersey.

Now there's "Raising Helen"'s Kate Hudson, foregoing the fast track as a Manhattan modeling executive to raise her late sister's three kids. "Helen" is the glossy, predictable new sitcom from veteran Garry Marshall and is more on a par with his so-so films, like "Runaway Bride" and "Overboard," than his occasional gems like "The Flamingo Kid" and "Pretty Woman."

Hudson plays Helen and, as the title suggests, she's the one who needs "raising."

She's a free-spirited Manhattanite who brings energy and great ideas to the high-profile modeling agency where she works for an aggressive ice queen (Helen Mirren). At night, she's a relentless, late-night party animal. A husband and-or children are the farthest things from her mind.

So, imagine Helen's shock when her sister and brother-in-law die in a crash and leave to her care their three children — two girls and a boy.

Given the set-up and the title, you know instantly where this film is going. Offering the only minor complications are Joan Cusack, as Helen's other sister, a conventional suburban mom who is understandably shocked that she didn't get the orphans, and John Corbett, as a handsome young Lutheran minister who woos our heroine.

Hudson is attractive and amusing but the role offers little challenge. She once again (as in "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days") steps into a cutesy-comic role that her mother (Goldie Hawn) could have played 20 years earlier. Given Hudson's distinctive performances in "Almost Famous" and the under-rated "Four Feathers" it's a shame she doesn't more actively pursue her own screen persona.

Rated PG-13, profanity, innuendo.