After reading all of the reviews here at metacritic, I was a bit skeptical. The concensus seemed to be that it was a very lackluster film. After seeing it I can safely say that I thoroughly enjoyed this film. I found it very funny and enjoyed the storyline (granted it was a very simple one). If you don't expect too much, I think you'll greatly enjoy this film too.

At a fashion show, Helen (Kate Hudson) leaves her kids with Dominique (Helen Mirren), who looks at the youngest orphan like she was leprosy incarnate. Somebody better tell the menopausin' matron that her life is unfulfilled, because the title "Raising Helen", which doubles as an in-joke, alludes to the actress that's playing her (who according to my Internet research, has no children). Lindsay (Felicity Huffman) must've known that bequeathing her little darlings to Helen could possibly hamper a career with great upward mobility potential. "Raising Helen" is so sugar and spice, everything nice, we might gloss over the possibility that Lindsay was jealous of Helen's freedom. In real life, if a career girl went from the fashion world to car retail, she'd have issues with her late sister, because very few of us are saints. "Raising Helen" is innocuous, but funny in spots (mostly involving Joan Cusack), and moving in spots(mostly involving Abigail Breslin), which adds up to, sporadically entertaining. … Expand

Sucks big time, even for a 'girly movie'...

Superficial, distaff clone of Kevin Smith's Jersey Girl with 3 times the children and one-third the charm. Kate Hudson is pretty but bland as a party girl who has motherhood forced upon her when her sister and brother-in-law suddenly are killed (on sis's birthday, no less--what shameless manipulation even by mediocre chick-flick standards!!); John Corbett is likable as always as the prerequisite Hunky-but-Sensitive Love Interest. To absolutely no surprise whatsoever, the wonderful Joan Cusack typically walks off with the film; she has a remarkable tendency to imbue tremendous empathy into the most stock of roles (Kevin Kline's disposable fiancee in In and Out; the Captain Binghamtonish principal in School of Rock; hell, Cusack even made the irredeemable villainess of that Muppet Christmas TV-movie a couple of years back really lovable!) It doesn't help that Cusack's Jenny, a supermom who should've gotten the kids but doesn't, is almost always right but is repeatedly put down as a no-fun stick-in-the-mud by the writers and other characters. (Quite frankly, if there were more Jennys and fewer Helens in the world, our prisons and rehab centers would be much less full.) The script does take a few redemptive turns toward Jenny near the end, but it's too little, much too late. Director Garry Marshall's movies are as streamlined as the cars in Hector Elizando's lot; he once made a truly terrific movie about parents and (adult) children, 1986's Nothing in Common -- the equal of Terms of Endearment on the subject and one of its decades's most underrated films, but the overwhelming success of Pretty Woman pretty much guarantees his absolute incapability to ever make something with that degree of emotional honesty again...and Raising Helen proves it.… Expand

It's a chick flick! It's supposed to be corny, romantic and cutesy... and it accomplishes all of the above. I thought it was great!

So Cute! Go see it! Just don't take it too seriously!

I loved this movie.

Sexist propaganda I would never let my daughter see. It's appalling lesson: it's bad to be a career woman and it's good be straddled with three children living on welfare.

Great!!!

Nice.

Excellent. Cute. Don't take it as a serious flick but for what it is - a GIRLIE MOVIE!!!

This is a really cute movie. verry sappy at times but still really cute. bring tissues! its a tear jerker!

Chick flick hell indeed. But with tons of sugar on it. I'm ashamed to say I sat through the whole thing. Where was I gonna go?

Raising Helen is a fun, feel-good movie. Kate Hudson has great chemistry with the kids and is having fun throughout the film. Not Oscar-worthy, but still a decent flick.

Finally another family movie!