It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Wow, the only likable character was the lawyer - and just barely that at times. The mother was the same character she played on Just Shoot me, the college girl was an obnoxious, selfish brat, and the little girl was a horrible, petulant little monster to such a degree that I found myself rooting for the selfish college girl to dump her on the grandparents. Plus the turnaround from things-going-badly to things-going-well was abrupt enough to give a viewer whiplash. Similarly themed movies that were better written include but are not limited to: Big Daddy (1999) (yeah, even that was better), Léon: The Professional (1994), Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936), almost any Shirley Temple movie, Let's Sing Again (1936).

Olivia Martin (Lacey Chabert) is a normal 21 year old college girl dating her teaching assistant Joe. He's moving to Italy to study and asks her to join him. She is estranged from her father who divorced her mom Barbara (Wendie Malick), and remarried to Alicia. He and Alicia have bratty daughter Celia (Sammi Hanratty). When her father and Alicia are killed, Olivia is left as Celia's guardian. She reluctantly accepts the responsibility from her father's friend and the executor of the estate Dennis Klein (David Ramsey).This was shown on ABC Family and has the expected production qualities. The story is very basic. It's very simple and slow at times. The writing is nothing special. The big initial draw is Lacey Chabert. Little Sammi Hanratty is a little girl with big acting and good range. They have a good melodramatic relationship. It's a family movie that isn't too sappy. It could have helped if Olivia has a wacky comedic best friend to add some jokes. Wendie Malick tries to fill that role but the mother can't be the comedic sidekick.

The actress that played Olivia was amazing in the hit movie 'Mean Girls', but only so-so in the ABC Family Original movie, 'Hello Sister, Goodbye Life'. Celia seems like she would be a brat and Richy-rich. I also think it was gross that she was dating her professor. That's like illegal! This movie was so corny and I believe it is physically impossible for ABC family to make a GOOD movie! It was OK but it copied 'Uptown Girls' and 'Raising Helen'. How they soon bond is also very corny and I don't think of it as a movie any living human should have to sit through. It wasn't as bad as i thought though. Oh wait, yes it was.

This is the story of an immature college student (Lacey Chabert) getting custody of a seven year old girl. There is definitely a Big Daddy or Uptown Girls vibe to this film, however, there is really no comparison in quality. Chabert is okay in her performance, and new comer Sammi Hanratty who plays seven year old Celia is cute but certainly won't be up for an Academy Award any time soon. With typical made for TV movie acting and a storyline that didn't really have much of a flow to it, this movie was disappointingly less than I expected. I would only recommend it to young children or anybody who enjoyed Big Daddy or Uptown Girls and can tolerated a second-rate production of those films.