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A Little Help

Play trailer Poster for A Little Help R 2011 1h 49m Comedy Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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40% Tomatometer 42 Reviews 30% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
Feeling her life spinning out of control, a widow (Jenna Fischer) drinks too much and goes along with her son's outrageous lie about how his father really died.
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A Little Help

Critics Reviews

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John DeFore Washington Post 08/05/2011
1.5/4
The next chapter in Laura's story might be something worth rooting for, but here's hoping she has a different writer penning her lines. Go to Full Review
Sam Adams Philadelphia City Paper 08/04/2011
B-
For a movie without much on its mind, A Little Help is impressively determined in its downward spiral, with only the minimum uplift to prevent audiences from walking straight out of the theater and into oncoming traffic. Go to Full Review
Brian Tallerico HollywoodChicago.com 07/29/2011
2.0/5.0
Despite the best efforts by Jenna Fischer playing against type as a smoking, drinking newly-single mother, A Little Help is a mess. Go to Full Review
Will Leitch Deadspin 06/22/2013
C-
A misguided dopey little vanity project that's harmless, but inert. Go to Full Review
David Nusair Reel Film Reviews 11/01/2011
2/4
...a well-intentioned yet misguided piece of work. Go to Full Review
Jeffrey M. Anderson Common Sense Media 10/29/2011
2/5
Though the movie can't possibly wrap up all its dramatic threads in any realistic manner, the way it abruptly leaves off is just as dissatisfying. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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03/25/2021 A comedy? Don't think so. Well done, acted. SPOILER ALERT kept waiting for the lead character to grow a spine, do what's best for her son, take the settlement to start over. They mildly allude to it. Let down. Very tired of movies that just end, leaving you to guess what you want. Ugggggg! See more 06/27/2020 Garbage watch, not watching again, and can't recommend. That said, there is an audience for this, and a lesson buried in the ending, but it honestly just feels like it's not finished. I generally like Jenna Fischer, I generally like it when a story plays with traditional story arcs, but this isn't a full story: it's just a sequence of events that happened in a character's life. That may sound similar to a plot, but there is a key difference that stories have a structure and value to it. I'm glad someone got to make this, it was probably helpful, and I'm sure it helped someone else to see the chaos of their life represented on screen. But most people should just skip this. See more 05/03/2020 Hollywood sees kids as obstacles to happiness, adults as grown children, and relationships as pointless. Seems like every movie portrays kids as disrespectful and adults caught in perpetual adolescence. And why are 80% of movies made by alleged experts so bad? Maybe every 100 movies I find one that is top notch See more ron t 04/19/2020 Another movie that has a good cast, a good premise, interesting character development and sets ups a complicated problem that you eagerly anticipate seeing the solution to, and then it just ends with no resolution. Making watching the whole movie a waste of time. And the people are sleazy in most of these movies. I'm glad I grew up when they knew how to write an ending, and they were usually inspirational, not majorly depressing. So that's the two cents of an old man. Which I learned in Amazon's "Catastrophe" is everyone's least favorite demographic, which explains a lot. See more 05/28/2019 A brilliant and bold film. Shows the unique relationship between a mother and her son that makes the average viewer question their own such love. An anachronism for the ages. See more 10/31/2018 Liked the movie. Loved the cast. See more Read all reviews
A Little Help

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Movie Info

Synopsis Feeling her life spinning out of control, a widow (Jenna Fischer) drinks too much and goes along with her son's outrageous lie about how his father really died.
Director
Michael J. Weithorn
Producer
Joe Gressis, Dena Hysell
Distributor
Freestyle Releasing
Production Co
Secret Handshake Entertainment
Rating
R (Drug Use|Some Sexual Content|Language)
Genre
Comedy, Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Jul 22, 2011, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Apr 23, 2012
Box Office (Gross USA)
$85.8K
Runtime
1h 49m
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