Helen
Helen
| 26 November 2009 (USA)
Helen Trailers

On the outside, Helen has it all – a loving family and a successful career – but when her suppressed mental illness resurfaces, the world crumbles around her. Crippled by depression, Helen finds solace through her friendship with Mathilda, a kindred spirit struggling with bipolar disorder.

Reviews
CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!
Wordiezett So much average
Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.
PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.
KamAtIMDb First of all, I love Ashley Judd and I will watch any movie she is in. She puts at least 100% into any role she plays.My review here is not about Ashley (I apologize, as I said, I love her). My review is about Lauren Lee Smith - an actress I don't see enough. She is absolutely wonderful. I first saw her in 9songs. A movie I watched because a patient recommended it for a reason I won't discuss. That female patient told me to watch as a man looking for beautiful nudity (not porn). So I watched it and I did see the beautiful nudity but, if you can skip though the god-awful music (not my generation), Lauren is so great you can see why I try to see all of Lauren's work. She is amazing. She obviously takes parts that need this type of actress. She brings real life action to the usual US-repressed/suppressed sexuality movies. Thankfully, that seems to be changing. I think we need more reality in our movies and TV. Most other countries are far ahead of the US, but we will get there eventually.
huanwentsai During the movie at time 55:35, in the parking lot sucker punching scene, you can see a GIANT MAT that the guy lands on after being punched.During the movie at time 55:35, in the parking lot sucker punching scene< you can see a GIANT MAT that the guy lands on after being punched.During the movie at time 55:35, in the parking lot sucker punching scene< you can see a GIANT MAT that the guy lands on after being punched.During the movie at time 55:35, in the parking lot sucker punching scene< you can see a GIANT MAT that the guy lands on after being punched.
SaMoFilmGuy An underdeveloped story in a genre that needs careful crafting to make sure the tale is one of a character afflicted with a disease and not just a treatise on the disease itself. Unfortunately, in this overlong, skimpy story we get no real idea of who Ashley Judd's character is. How does she live when she's holed up in a (Hollywood-style "gritty") warehouse? Where does she get her money from? It's terribly convenient that she has a student with the same disease who, when it's convenient for her to leave, jumps off a rooftop so that Judd can return to her husband. Too many scenes of Judd crying in a fetal position, or just acting dumb (pouring milk on the floor) doesn't make for a good examination of the way a character we really know and understand can fall prey to this malady. Slow, boring and too reliant on electroshock as the answer with no examination of other aspects of the character's background. Also totally unbelievable for anybody familiar with this disease is the idea that her new husband and daughter would have no indication that Judd's character had been depressed before with husband number 1. Moreover she'd have definitely suffered from some indicative episode of depression before succumbing full bore to another attack. Again, the movie is too schematic a dramatic presentation.
gradyharp Sandra Nettlebeck both wrote and directed this somber, intense study about clinical depression. The film is long, is a one-note song, and is in need of editing and lightening - or is it? What Nettleback has created is an atmosphere that very likely simulates the way the world is viewed and coped with by those who are suffering from suicidal depression. It is a lesson as much as it is a film. Helen (Ashley Judd) is a popular professor of music theory, and accomplished pianist, and the wife of handsome and successful lawyer David (Goran Visnjic), and mother of a charming teenager Julie (Alexia Fast) all of whom we meet at a surprise birthday party for Helen. But very gradually Helen begins to change from the ebullient happy woman to a more quiet, pensive, obviously injured woman. Concentration fails, she cannot get enough sleep, her connection to the world begins to crumble and finally she breaks into the depths of depression. Despite the support of David and Julie and denying the medical assistance of psychiatrist Dr. Sherman (Alberta Watson), Helen continues to sink deeper into the profound sadness of clinical depression. One of Helen's students, Mathilda (Lauren Lee Smith) seems to be one of the few people with whom Helen can relate: we are lead to discover Mathilda suffers from a similar disorder. The truth about Helen's medical history finally surfaces: she has had suicidal ideation and clinical depression in her past When married before to Frank (David Hewlett) and soon after the birth of Julie (?postpartum depression?) Helen required psychiatric hospitalization, her marriage failed, and she ultimately met David who has been the ideal husband and father for Julie. Helen escapes her home, is hospitalized and undergoes shock therapy after a suicide attempt - her only apparent understanding contact is the nebulously drawn Mathilda. How Helen emerges from her illness and reorganizes her life is the ending of the film. The film benefits greatly from the moody musical score by Tim Despic with the aid of James Edward Barker ( and Schumann and Schubert...) and the mood is kept appropriately dark by the cinematography by Michael Bertl. The quartet of actors - Judd, Visnjic, Smith, and Fast) - are outstanding as is the well selected group of actors for supporting roles. But for this study of the depths of depression - mostly dark scenes of Helen lying in bed or weeping - is, at two hours, a bit more than an audience can handle. In order to appreciate the quality of this film the viewer must accept the fact that the main point of the film is a study of the crippling illness of depression. And that it does extremely well. Grady Harp