A Little Help (2010)
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43% of critics liked it
(42 reviews) -
32% of users liked it
(3,841 ratings)
It's a movie for everyone whose life has been thrown off-course, out of whack, or simply not turned out the way they planned it. In other words, it's a movie for everyone, period. Set in suburban Long Island in the summer of 2002, with the psychic wounds of 9/11 still fresh, A Little Help is… More It's a movie for everyone whose life has been thrown off-course, out of whack, or simply not turned out the way they planned it. In other words, it's a movie for everyone, period. Set in suburban Long Island in the summer of 2002, with the psychic wounds of 9/11 still fresh, A Little Help is a story that takes a comic, searching and profoundly empathetic look at a few pivotal months in the life of dental hygienist Laura Pehlke (Jenna Fischer)-an ordinary woman whose life suddenly flies off the rails-and her heroic efforts to re-establish a sense of security and normalcy for herself and her son. -- (C) Official Site
- Directed By
- Michael J. Weithorn
- Written By
- Michael J. Weithorn
- Genres
- Drama, Comedy
- In Theaters
- Jul 22, 2011 Limited
- On DVD
- Oct 25, 2011
- Studio
- Freestyle Releasing
Critic Reviews
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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.
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Tom Long, Detroit News
A Little Help doesn't dazzle, and you can pick at its parts, but Fischer's performance gives the movie a sense of romantic weariness that lingers. Life is a series of disasters to be weathered, no matter how cute you are.
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Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune
The film suffers from an uncertain tone, playing serious situations for laughs while supplying Laura with a drinking habit and a hair-trigger temper that come across as problems rather than endearing foibles.
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Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
This is one of the smarter, more honest scripts to be filmed in quite some time. And Jenna Fischer gives one of the smarter, more honest - and vulnerable, and tough - performances by an actress on the big screen in an even longer stretch.
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Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
It's not that Jenna Fischer is miscast in "A Little Help.'' It's that she's mis-everything else: misused, misdirected, misanthropic.
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Cast
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Jenna Fischer
as Laura, Laura Pehlke
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Chris O'Donnell
as Bob, Bob Pehlke
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Kim Coates
as Mel Kaminsky
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Lesley Ann Warren
as Joan
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Brooke Smith
as Kathy, Kathy Helms
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Aida Turturro
as Nancy Feldman
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Rob Benedict
as Paul
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Daniel Yelsky
as Dennis, Dennis Pehlke
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Nadia Dajani
as Angela Behar
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Sam McMurray
as Big Bad Dan
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Ron Leibman
as Warren
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Arden Myrin
as Ms. Gallagher
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Lynn Cohen
as Mrs. Cosolito
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Shari Albert
as Rhonda
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Gracie Bea Lawrence
as Gracie
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Joy Suprano
as Julie
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Jim Florentine
as Brian
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Michelle Hurst
as Eileen
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Miles Williams
as Christopher
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Sarah Wilson
as Amanda
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Mark Vincent
as Garage Mechanic
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Markus Goldberg
as Birthday Party Guest
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Zach Page
as Kyle
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Elaine Kussack
as Sara
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Sara Kapner
as Wendy
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Brandon Perler
as Noah
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Carla Briscoe
as Kristen
- Glen Trotiner
- Dion di Mucci
- Dena Hysell
- Joe Gressis








