NEWS JUNKIE POST
Sep 7, 2010 at 2:27 pmJudd Offers Oscar-Worthy Depiction of Depression in ‘Helen’
If an actress delivers an Oscar-worthy performance but but no one sees it in the theatre can she win? That cinematic equivalent of the old tree falling in the forest dilemma ran through my mind after watching Ashley Judd’s remarkable, heart-achingly beautiful performance in “Helen.” The riveting film, which made the festival rounds last year and landed in select art house theatres for maybe an unannounced Wednesday matinee this summer, is now out on DVD. And it is an unforgettable, must see movie.
But be warned: It is also excruciating to watch. “Helen” is one of the most captivating and painfully authentic portrayals of a woman in the grips of an acute clinical depression. The film is so painful to absorb at times, after watching it I had the same reaction I had after seeing “Leaving Las Vegas” and “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.” Grateful for the powerful experience, but so emotionally wrung out a return celluloid trip seemed unlikely.
Inspired by the suicide of a childhood friend, writer-director Sandra Nettlebeck, follows Helen, a seemingly happy and successful music professor as she sinks deeper and deeper into an inexplicable psychological abyss. Her descent starts with small moments of sadness and insomnia, a few odd incidents of uncharacteristic anti-social behavior. Family and friends let her strange affect go, just a passing mood, perhaps. Wishful thinking, it turns out.
Before long Helen is spiraling deeper and deeper into a dark place from which there is no retreat. Helen’s pain is palpable and Judd is achingly beautiful as we watch her sobbing uncontrollably on the floor of the laundry room, summoning crazy courage to cut out the pain with the kitchen cutlery. That’s when her patient but profoundly confused husband, David ( Goran Visjinc also pitch-perfect in an award-worthy performance) cajoles her into the local psych ward. She’s a happy person, this doesn’t make sense, he protests. “You’re wife isn’t unhappy, ” the doctor says. “She’s ill.” Anyone who’s worked with the mentally ill, watched a loved one suffer or struggled themselves with mental illness comes to understand that depression isn’t synonymous with discontent. It is a complicated illness, one with an unpredictable, tortuous course that is difficult to chart. And Nettlebeck isn’t afraid to flaunt the unsentimental reality: love, though often healing, can also complicate matters.
Nettlebeck strives for realism at most turns. There’s no sugar-coating the treatment. Some meds don’t work, others seem to, but there are punishing side-effects. Helen resists a hospital stay, opting to fight her psychiatrist’s advice and her husband’s wishes and seeks release through a competency hearing ( not uncommon). The film not only powerfully depicts a patient’s arduous travails, it also shows the impact of the illness on family. We watch David grope for causes and answers in his logical ( he’s a lawyer) way as he is emotionally shut out by the wife he still obviously loves with a deep and abiding passion. We see him struggle with work and his teenage step-daughter. The girl ( who moves in with her dad for a bit), also has her emotional moments watching mom unravel.
Helen forges a friendship with young bi-polar patient, a woman( played with a frenetic realism by Lauren Lee Smith) who coincidentally is also one of her conservatory students. Unfortunately, this is where Nettlebeck falls prey to melodramatic contrivances, hammering home her points about the daunting depths of the illness and its indiscriminate power to strain relationships and ruin lives. As a viewer I started to drift , frustrated with the overt manipulation. And that’s too bad, as salvation could have been found with a subtle change here, a small shift there. And it wouldn’t matter if the film didn’t work so hard to achieve such heartbreaking authenticity. It seems like Nettlebeck lost her nerve or confidence a bit, thinking she had to force a certain degree of dramatic diversion into the heavy material. Trouble is: she almost overplayed her hand.
Still, “Helen” is ultimately saved by Judd’s performance. It is, quite simply, magnificent. Judd is easily on par with Joanne Woodward’s seductively mesmerizing portrayal of a woman coping with dissociative identity disorder in “The Three Faces of Eve” and Angelina Jolie’s captivating (and if dare I say, overrated)performance as a chronic mental patient in “Girl, Interrupted.” Both of those, incidentally, scored Oscars. If there’s any cinematic justice, Academy voters will get their hands on the DVD screener of “Helen” and cast their votes for quality over blockbuster buzz.
The real winners, of course, are the mentally ill and their families and the audience brave enough to embark on such an emotionally-charged and illuminating journey.
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What a magnificent review of “Helen!” Ashley Judd did a stupendous portrayal of this woman. She should have been at least nominated for an Oscar for this role. Thanks for sharing with others what should be seen by many.
there is never a definitive reason one slips into OR comes out of depression – which the film’s vagueness depicts perfectly. it’s a phenomenon as bewildering to the afflicted as their loved ones. like you, i will keep my fingers crossed for judd and nettelbeck to receive the recognition they both deserve. thanks for an awesome review – i will link to it on my blog!
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