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Raising Helen | 2004 | PG-13 | - 4.2.4

A successful, on-the-rise modeling agent (Kate Hudson) becomes the guardian to her two nieces and nephew after her sister and brother-in-law die in a car accident. Her life is thrown into turmoil as she tries to adjust to her new life, and she also befriends a local pastor (John Corbett) who falls in love with her. Also with Abigail Breslin, Spencer Breslin, and Audrey Wells. Directed by Garry Marshall. [1:59]

SEX/NUDITY 4 - A man and a woman kiss passionately, she removes his shirt (we see him bare-chested), and she kisses down his chest. Also a woman kisses a man, and a man and a woman kiss tenderly. Teenage boys and girls kiss in a few scenes. We hear that a teenage girl and a teenage boy go to a motel together, we see them in the room and the boy is bare-chested (it is not clear whether anything has happened). A man leans in to kiss a woman and she turns away. A teenage girl flirts with teenage boys in many scenes. A woman dances on a stage wiggling her hips, and teenage girls and boys dance suggestively. Teenage boys and girls dance at a prom and a man and a woman dance close together. A man (he's a pastor) says "I can watch dirty movies." A man on stilts looks down a woman's top. A woman wears a skirt that is slit up the back revealing her bare thighs, and women wear low-cut dresses and tops that reveal cleavage, bare shoulders, backs and abdomens. A man tries to convince a woman that he's "sexy."

VIOLENCE/GORE 2 - A woman receives a phone call telling her that her sister and brother-in-law were killed in a car accident. A woman swings a baseball bat at teenagers telling them to break up a party and go home. A girl shoves a boy. There are a few verbal threats of violence. A woman trips and falls on the floor. Three children sit in a closet grieving over their parents. A girl shows a woman what is in her nose and a girl asks a woman, "who will check my nose booggies for infections?" During an animated short preceding the film a cat (who looks evil) casts a spell on another cat causing its tail to have a mind of its own. The cat fights with its own tail, and tries to run away from it. The cat falls into water and sinks struggling to get back to the surface, the cat puts the tail across a railroad track, a train runs over it but nothing happens to it, and the cat sends an electric charge through the tail (it loses its fur). The evil cat gives the cat a knife to cut the tail off, the tail gets the knife and tries to stab the cat, and the cat then stabs the tail.

LANGUAGE 4 - 5 sexual references, 1 scatological term, 4 anatomical terms, 4 mild obscenities.

SUBSTANCE USE - People are shown smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Death of parents, childhood, motherhood, adolescence, promiscuity, commitment, responsibility, grief, custody, family, purgatory, hemophilia, the after life, lying, career vs. family.

MESSAGE - Keeping a family together requires patience, understanding and teamwork -- and it's not always possible without help.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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