A Little Help

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A Little Help

R

Released Jul 22, 2011

1h 49m

Comedy

Drama

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Popcornmeter

40%

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42 Reviews

30%

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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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John DeFore

Washington Post

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.

Rated: 1.5/4

Aug 5, 2011

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Sam Adams

Philadelphia City Paper

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.

Rated: B-

Aug 4, 2011

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Brian Tallerico

HollywoodChicago.com

Despite the best efforts by Jenna Fischer playing against type as a smoking, drinking newly-single mother, A Little Help is a mess.

Rated: 2.0/5.0

Jul 29, 2011

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Will Leitch

Deadspin

A misguided dopey little vanity project that's harmless, but inert.

Rated: C-

Jun 22, 2013

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David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

...a well-intentioned yet misguided piece of work.

Rated: 2/4

Nov 1, 2011

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Jeffrey M. Anderson

Common Sense Media

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.

Rated: 2/5

Oct 29, 2011

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Audience Member

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!

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

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Audience Member

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.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

02/18/23

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Audience Member

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

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/03/23

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ron t

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.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

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Audience Member

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.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/15/23

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Audience Member

Liked the movie. Loved the cast.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

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Michael J. Weithorn

Director

Jenna Fischer

Laura

Chris O'Donnell

Bob

Rob Benedict

Paul

Daniel Yelsky

Dennis

Kim Coates

Mel Kaminsky

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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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