Friday, December 16, 2005

DVD review - Raising Helen

There's something about Kate Hudson that annoys me. I haven't figured out what it is yet, but it's probably got something to do with how she always seems kind of perky. Knowing this, I answered The Call from Carmencita and we decided to watch Miss Hudson's latest new-to-weekly DVD, Raising Helen. After this, I'm beginning to wonder whether its not so much that I find her annoying, but rather I find her roles annoying. This will be explained in time.

The basic story is that we have 3 sisters, Felicity Huffman, Joan Cusack, and Kate Hudson. Kate is a lot younger than her sisters in age and maturity (probably mid to late-20s), but she and Felicity (who I assume is eldest) are close to each other in personality, with Joan being the ultra-mature/maternal one in the middle. The elder two seem to be housewives, while Kate works as a PA for the head of a modelling agency - her life being a combination of hot clothes, glamourous parties, early office starts, short-notice travel, etc. We are shown that she's actually VERY good at what she does...but also that she's immature and *playing* at life. Tragedy strikes when Felicity is killed in a car accident, and leaves custody of her three children (15yo girl, 10yo boy, 5yo girl) to Kate, much to everyone's shock. And so we have a movie showing Kate trying to achieve balance between raising a family and her *party* lifestyle.

Now, if you know me, you're probably thinking I'm going to write a diatribe about how conservative values are being pushed whereby being a successful career-woman is incompatible with having a family and being *responsible*. This is pushed to an extent - Kate loses her job after a debacle involving a model, some kids, and permanent textas...but this is counterbalanced by her actually going back to the agency and being promoted to agent (cos she was good at promoting the agency's models). No, what really gave me the #$@! was the actual character of Helen.

It's not that she was a party girl and is finding it difficult to adjust. I'm sure that if someone left me custody of children not much younger than me, I'd have trouble adjusting to it too. It was her complete inability to have even a sense of AUTHORITY, and upon discovering that she does in fact have one, her inability to exercise it, letting Joan take the blame for being "horrible". The eldest daughter sees Kate as a partner in crime, not an authority figure, and throws a party in their apartment while Kate is at work, and later goes to the senior prom (even though she's a freshman oooOOooo) even though the guy who asked her is dodgy and has the plan to get into her pants.

Now I don't know about you, but if I came home from a long day at work to find a bunch of kids having a party and trashing in MY house, I'd be freaking furious. But no, Kate can't force them out cos she remembers what its like to be 15 and how popularity was everything. Upon finding that her niece has left the prom AND stolen her credit card, she's developed enough outrage to call Joan on what to do and track the niece and boy to a seedy motel....but just as the time comes to give what for, she tells Joan that she can't handle the idea of being hated for having to do this her niece. EXCUSE ME?!?!?! She'd rather let her niece ruin her life than be hated for humiliating the girl in front of a boy?! A boy, I should add, she had previously told her niece to stop hanging around?!? Where the HELL are your balls woman?!?! And get some perspective while you're at it. Cos there's sheer immaturity which is probably what Helen started at, then there's stupidity which Helen can't be cos of her professional proficiency, so that just leaves idiocy where you know what the right thing is, but you do the dumb thing anyway.

And so, Kate Hudson, so long as you keep choosing roles where your character can't see reality or sees reality but hides from it, I'm just going to have to keep finding you annoying.

2/5

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