A Portrait of Depression
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS
Published: July 29, 2010
Opening with a sobering quotation from Andrew Solomon’s 1998 confession of suicidal depression inThe New Yorker, “Helen” dives into this painful mental illness with sensitivity and grace.
As Helen, a successful music professor and contented wife and mother,Ashley Judd is, initially, gleamingly serene. But as the first ripples of sadness swell to a paralyzing crescendo of distress, she never loses her grip on a character that is unrelentingly embattled. Unable to communicate with her appalled husband (Goran Visnjic, tone perfect) and teenage daughter (Alexia Fast), Helen finds comfort only in the company of a self-destructive student (an excellent Lauren Lee Smith) who is struggling with her own psychological demons.
Drawing inspiration from the suicide of a childhood friend, the writer and director, Sandra Nettelbeck, orchestrates a story that somehow avoids punishing the audience as much as its heroine. Demanding patience but not blood, the film keenly conveys the profound isolation of mental illness and the futility of searching for someone, or something, to blame. In roles that could have devolved into arias of melodrama, the cast never overplays its hand, fighting the omnipresent melancholy in small ways rather than large.
Shot (by Michael Bertl) in the damp spaciousness of Vancouver, British Columbia, the film — from leafy exteriors to sterile hospital rooms — has a cool, unsettling beauty. If only depression were always this pretty.
Written and directed by Sandra Nettelbeck; director of photography, Michael Bertl; edited by Barry Egan; music by David Darling, score by Tim Despic; production designer, Linda Del Rosario; costumes by Bettina Helmi; produced by Kirk Shaw, Jens Meurer, Simon Fawcett, Chris Curling, Robbie Little, Larry Sugar, Andrew Spaulding and Doug Mankoff; released by E1 Entertainment. At the Quad Cinema, 34 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village. Running time: 1 hour 59 minutes.
WITH: Ashley Judd (Helen Leonard), Goran Visnjic (David Leonard), Lauren Lee Smith (Mathilda), Alexia Fast (Julie Leonard), Alberta Watson (Dr. Sherman) and Leah Cairns (Susanna).
http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/07/30/movies/30helen.html
