By Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer 
Audrey (Hayden Panattiere, left), Helen (Kate Hudson, center left), Lindsay (Felicity Huffman, center right) and Paul (Sean O'Bryan, right) let loose with a dance in a bonding moment. - Contributed
RAISING HELEN is a comedy with hints of drama. It is quite an adorable picture, but it is also very lukewarm. Raising Helen stars Kate Hudson as Helen Harris, a young executive assistant who gets a crash course introduction to parenthood.
Helen is on her way up in the fashion world and though she hasn't reached yet, she is quite close to the top. Her boss' darling, Helen's effervescent personality makes her loved both at home and at work. She has been allowed to enjoy children without ever having to take them home, playing the fun aunt to her older sister, Lindsay's children.
However, when Lindsay and her husband die, Helen is entrusted with the responsibility of caring for their three children. It is a task she is completely unprepared for, emotionally and otherwise, and Lindsay has only left her with the song 'Whip It' as a semi-treatise for parenthood.
Like the character Helen, Raising Helen seems to have good intentions and was on its way to raising the standards of family dramatic comedies. In a few ways Raising Helen is trying to be the next Stepmom. However, despite its best attempts, Raising Helen fails because it lacks the emotional depth of Stepmom.
ISSUES OF MOTHERHOOD
The movie has sufficient thematic issues to make it a much stronger more meaningful film. They simply were not dealt with seriously enough. Raising Helen deals with issues of motherhood and shows that though most women come with the equipment that make them mothers, learning to become one is a very different and far more difficult matter.
Raising Helen tackles issues that many women in today's world face. It is impossible to match a Sex and the City type lifestyle with that of Seventh Heaven. Her ineffectiveness is pitted against her sister Jenny (Joan Cusack) and neighbour Nilma Prasad (Sakina Jeffrey).
FULL CIRCLE
In a sense it shows that women have almost come full circle when it comes to equality at home and the work place. Getting equal time at work has meant giving up some of the family time, and though Jenny is made fun of with her disturbing obsession with knitting, flowery patterns and potpourri, her choice to work only in the home is a very legitimate and often necessary one.
HALF-HEARTED STAB
A large part of what is wrong with Raising Helen is that it thinks that being cute is enough. Writers Patrick Clifton and Beth Rigazio have simply given a half-hearted stab at the series of complicated issues that will result when three children lose their parents and have to live with a less than responsible aunt. Hudson, John Corbett (Pastor Dan Parker) and Hayden Panettierre (Audrey Davis) might be very cute, but that does not give the movie the heart it needs.
In the end, the movie tries to show that Helen has grown up, but it is not an altogether believable scenario. Additionally, Helen also makes an unimpressive heroine because she is able to fight for nothing, neither the children nor her job. After seeming to promise a light though meaningful bout of reality, Raising Helen only manages to pass off as a fluffy little fantasy. It's adorable, but atlas that's not enough.
