Raising Helen

Helen Harris works for a prominent modeling agency in Manhattan and enjoys the nightlife that comes with it. Her life changes when her sister and brother-in-law die and she is given custody of their three children: teenage Audrey, ten-year-old Henry and young Sarah. Helen moves to a less fashionable part of New York and has to balance her career with raising a family. She also grows close to Dan Parker, a pastor, whose help becomes something more.

Garry Marshall directed the film, the thirteenth of the eighteen he made, between The Princess Diaries and its sequel. Jack Amiel and Michael Begler wrote the screenplay, and Kate Hudson plays Helen. John Corbett is Pastor Dan, with Joan Cusack as Jenny Portman and Hayden Panettiere, Spencer Breslin and Abigail Breslin as the children. The credited cast runs to 104 names and the crew to 67.

The film was released in May 2004 and runs 119 minutes. It cost about 50 million dollars and took roughly the same amount worldwide, so it did not recover its costs from cinemas. On IMDb it holds 6 out of 10 from around 39,000 votes, while on TMDB it averages 6.1 from a far smaller number of votes. Critics were harsher, giving it 4.9 out of 10 across 130 reviews.