Best movie of this year hands down!

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Mommy Jenny made me sick. So did that crazy Indian woman who attacked the kids for enjoying a party. Why shouldnt Audrey have sex or fake ID so she could have a drink?

Raising Helen is a beautiful film which takes care of a very sensitive topic in our society of raising someone's children whom you have known very well. It is one of those films. It tells the story of a free spirited woman (Helen) who works hard and enjoys her life to the full. But due to the calamitous death of her sister and brother-in-law she gets chosen to be the legal guardian of their children instead of her other sister who is unlike her. The story goes on by how Helen copes with the situation to try to become a successful working single mom.Kate Hudson as Helen gives an outstanding performance. I never did like her that much, always thought she was overrated nonetheless this acting has made me a fan of her and I am looking forward to her next appearance in Wish I Was Here (2014).Coming to the child stars, Abigail Breslin as Sarah does the best among the others. It is good to see her getting transformed into a teen star from a child one. Hayden Panettiere as Audrey accomplished her task well in this movie but is not great and Spencer Breslin as Henry is a notch down from both of them as he couldn't get some expressions right in my point of view.Joan Cusack as Jenny the other sister does well as a supporting actor which is certainly expected from her. John Corbett as Pastor accomplishes at providing the humorous moments needed in the film and Helen Mirren has a minor role, however a good one.Largely the film felt a little rushed to me although it already stands at 119 minutes, I think other characters should have been developed more and added emotional touch could also be given to it. Nevertheless, it's a decent popcorn flick that can be viewed with your family on a weekend.Overall it's a 7/10 from my side.

Really nice movie about family,career and love, without sex and naughty stuff. Well the lesson you can learn from this movie, Being a parent is not easy, when it start mostly peoples will think its just an easy job, but in the middle you gotta feel how hard is it,separate your job from your children,feed them, have fun with them, you probably gotta get crazy with all of it, maybe gotta lost your job too and it all depends on you how you gonna mix up and manage all your career,family and other stuff together or maybe you gonna need to choose between one of its. So in this movie it mostly tell us how to do and how to choose that! Kate Hudson playing nice acting in this movie, i just love it her face when she back home and found out Audrey have a party with her school friends, haha

I think the movie makes the mistake that its more cheerful and happy, instead of being dramatic. The core of the movie is its drama but this just doesn't work out fully due to the fact that everything around it is too cheerful and made in a comedy kind of style. The movie even finds room to put in a love-story, which is just a bit too much I'm afraid. The movie should had focused some more on the mourning and real problems, if the movie wanted to make a real lasting and effective impression. Instead now the problems in the movie are too trivial and don't seem significant enough, when considering 3 young children lost their parents and they're being raised by her aunt who definitely is an inexperienced one, as a 'parent'. You can say that the movie is too 'Hollywood' and therefor also becomes formulaic, standard and rather predictable.The movie is definitely well made for a 'comedy' and it has some great characters in it, that help to make the movie. There is a good balance of characters that are funny (although perhaps a bit too over-the-top) and characters that are serious. It's the thing that keeps the movie going and make it a pleasant one to watch.It's not like the story is really heading anywhere in the movie. Especially the middle of the movie is a sort of a drag, after a good and quite promising first minutes. Seemed like the movie wasn't too sure what direction to head in after that. It falls back to a lot of clichés to eventually of course also end in a clichéd and predictable way. The movie is perhaps also a bit too long. At least more then it really needed to be. Perhaps some side-plots should had been dropped.Amazingly the movie really has a big and superb cast, with actors such as Kate Hudson, Joan Cusack, Helen Mirren, Hector Elizondo and Felicity Huffman in it. But all the more great is the children-cast. Spencer Breslin and Abigail Breslin are two of the great child-actors of our time and in this movie they once more show why. And then there is Hayden Panettiere, who is a strange case. For her age she's great but I have doubts if people in 10 years from now still know who she is. If she wants to continue being taking seriously and show that she's up for the task, she needs to start taking some more serious roles fast, or else she continues being typecast over and over again, until eventually she is considered to be too old by Hollywood. She needs to stop doing these cheerful movies and cheerful roles. Even when her character is supposed to be mad she has something cheerful in her. She has the potential to become a great actress, if she can make the step to more serious and demanding roles NOW.I consider this to be a watchable movie, as long as you can handle most of the Hollywood clichés.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/