Hello,
How many people here, have seen the movie,"Raising Helen", with Kate Hudson, starring in the title role?
I love that movie. We own it. Anyway. I loved that movie, because I have 3 sisters,myself,and I could never imagine ever,losing any ot them in death.
Although, we are all very different from one another, we do share some views.
Helen, is a young, beautiful,successful woman, who lives the perfect life.
She's a sister,an Aunt,and a friend, has money,works for a huge ad agency,and works with all the top models.She goes to all the shows,books the best and most popular models for print work,ramp modeling, and other things that involve modeling.
She has an older sister,played by Joan Cusack,and an even older sister,Lindsay(actress name escapes me,sorry), who is married, has 3 kids,and is very,very close to Helen,in a way that Joans' character, envies. Even though she, is married herself,is a great Mom,and has a lot of really nice things.
Well, Helen, is very close to her nieces and nephew,and even is privy to the new fake i.d., her older niece has acquired. One day, Helen is having lunch with some of her work friends,and recieves a phone call that will devistate her,and change her whole world. Her sister,Lindsay,along with her husband, have been killed in a horrific car accident. Pretty soon, she and her only remaining sister, are called to a meeting with Linsdays' attorney, regarding the children and her estate. As it turns out, Helen, is to take on Lindsays children,and raise them,herself. This just shocks both Helen and her sister,since the sister, is the experienced Mom,and Helen is,in her sisters' words, "tra la la, Helen". In other words, has never had much responsibility other than her ejob,ever.Her sister really resents this,and is always arguing with Helen about this decision that Lindsay made. She does'nt understand why Helen would gain custody of the kids, and questions Helen about it.
Anyway. Helen has the kids move in,and soon it becomes apparent that Helen will no longer be able to fulfill her duties as an Executive Assistant,and is asked, sort of, to leave her position with the company. This devistates Helen,and makes the kids feel bad. The, with the loss of her great paying job, she is forced to give up her luxury apartment, and move to the Bronx, and, to a larger apartment. Well, Helen soon learns how difficult it is to be a "Mother". She no longer has a social life,as she once knew it,and is having to relocate the kids to another school. She begins having behavioral problems with her oldest Niece,Audrey. Audrey starts cutting class,getting caught making out with the school bad boy in the school, which just happens to be a Lutheran School,and is called in to see the Preacher. They begin to get to know each other, and he begins helping her through the transition from Happy-Go-Luck Auntie, to the family warden, and has to start learning to discipline Audrey. Audrey, like any teen girl, starts to resent Helen, much the same way she would have begun resenting her own Mother,LIndsay, had she been alive.
As the movie progresses, Helen and the Preacher, fall in love,go through the night where Audrey and the bad boy, sneak one of Helens' credit cards and rent a motel on the other side of town. Audrey, you get the feeling, really regrets her decision to do that, but, when Auntie and Aunt Helen show up at the motel, Audrey is really angry at them. Well, Helen starts thinking she has no business raising kids, and almost gives up on the kids,when she and her remaining sister, talk some more on the subject,and read each others' letters from Lindsay, explaining why she chose Helen.
Though she believed with all her heart, that the one sister was a great Mother, she had chosen Helen, because Helen, was most like her,and would undoubtedly, raise the kids much the same way Lindsay would have. They thought the same way, loved the same things, and were very close.
Slowly, the 2 sisters realize this, and, Helen does learn to be a "Mom" to her NIeces and Nephew. This is the beginning of the "healing" between the 2 sisters,and they draw closer than they ever were before,and, Helen lands the Preacher Man. As a woman with 3 sisters, I know how I would feel if I ever lost any of my sisters. And, though we don't always see eye to eye, I think I would have been able to understand why my late sister would have made the decision she would have made about having to raise her son. It would be very tough at first, going from the cool aunt to the person who is now in charge. The movie was so sad, when the family at first, had to go through the funeral, and transition to a different set of roles,but, eventually, the pain lessened,and all were able to finally get into a routine,and love each other again. I guess that's why this movie moved me so much. I have kids,and i have sisters withwhom I am very close to.