A LITTLE HELP
Little movie with a big heart—but adults should watch at home.
Should You Watch It?
A LITTLE HELP has a modest scale but a generous heart. Its strongest moments come through Laura’s attempt to rebuild her life and find a healthier relationship with her sullen 12-year-old son. The film also offers snappy dialogue, solid acting, laughter, occasional tears, and a positive reconciliation between mother and son.
The cost is significant. The movie contains plenty of foul language, including about 15 “f” words, along with brief lewd content, substance abuse, smoking, drunkenness, temptation, and miscellaneous immoral behavior. Its Romantic worldview also places emotional and relational choices at the center without fully resolving every moral problem positively.
If you are an adult who can weigh those concerns carefully, A LITTLE HELP has worthwhile emotional and moral moments. For family viewing, wait for home and choose something more suitable.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESLaura is a dental hygienist and mother whose unhappy marriage changes suddenly when her workaholic husband dies of a heart attack. Left to question her husband’s faithfulness and manage a humorously dysfunctional family, Laura tries to keep her life from spiraling downward.
As she faces difficult choices, Laura works to rebuild her relationships—especially with her 12-year-old son, Dennis.
Is It Any Good?
Three stars means A LITTLE HELP is a worthwhile but limited character comedy. The film has charming, emotional, and uplifting moments, supported by snappy dialogue and solid acting from a cast of television veterans showing their skills on the big screen.
It also balances laughter with occasional tears and finds pathos in Laura’s family struggles. Its modest approach gives the relationships room to carry the story, though the movie’s strong content and unresolved moral elements make its strengths better suited to discerning adults at home.
The Worldview
A LITTLE HELP presents a strong Romantic worldview, with relationships and emotional fulfillment shaping the characters’ choices. The film includes some light morally uplifting elements, especially Laura’s effort to rebuild her relationship with her son and her decision to walk away from the possibility of an affair with her brother-in-law.
The movie also depicts family dysfunction, temptation, lying, substance use, and a marriage marked by coldness and verbal belittling. Its eventual mother-son reconciliation is positive, but the lying is not fully resolved positively. The film therefore offers meaningful insights about family healing while falling short of a fully biblical understanding of truth, marriage, and moral responsibility.
Scripture calls believers to put away falsehood and speak truthfully to one another: “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor” (Ephesians 4:25).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Content Summary
Strong Romantic worldview with some light morally uplifting elements; at least 51 obscenities and profanities (including 15 or so “f” words); light, brief comic or slapstick violence; briefly depicted fornication, woman wonders if dead husband had an affair and married man has long-time crush on his dead brother’s widow; upper male nudity; alcohol use and drunkenness; mother smokes and hides her cigarettes from others plus implied marijuana use; and, bad father, son treats mother rudely throughout much of the movie but they eventually reconcile, family bickering throughout for humorous effect, temptation, and lying that’s not fully resolved positively.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Laura tries to rebuild her relationship with her son. What helps repair a damaged family relationship, and where might you need patience or humility?
Ephesians 4:2–3 · Colossians 3:12–13The film includes lying that is not fully resolved positively. Why does truth matter even when a lie seems intended to help someone?
Ephesians 4:25 · Proverbs 12:22Laura faces the temptation of an affair and walks away from it. What does faithfulness require when a relationship is already painful?
Exodus 20:14 · 1 Corinthians 6:18The movie portrays a family that bickers but eventually finds reconciliation. How can forgiveness change the atmosphere in a home?
Matthew 6:14–15 · Colossians 3:13The Final Word
A LITTLE HELP is charming, emotional, and occasionally uplifting, with strong acting and a positive family reconciliation at its center. But its profanity and other mature content make it unsuitable for children and young teens. For discerning adults, WAIT FOR HOME — ADULTS ONLY. For family viewing, consider.
