Boxing Helena

Rating:
Summary: An interesting idea
Review: I saw "Boxing Helena" because I'm such a fan of director David Lynch and it had been directed by his daughter Jennifer, plus it stars "Twin Peaks" alum Fenn and the director of photography worked on the series as well. While technically proficient, the film is terribly flawed by occasionally hammy performances by everyone, especially Sands and the inexplicable Bill Paxton (yes, he is in the movie, though he may never admit to it), and additionally by terribly stilted and unoriginal dialogue. On the plus side the film deals with some fascinating ideas, such as the border between love and obsession and the notion of the 'boxes' that we put ourselves in emotionally. The ending will come as a bit of a surprise to most, and it helps if you view the entire thing as a fable rather than a realistic portrayl of a story.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting idea
Review: I saw "Boxing Helena" because I'm such a fan of director David Lynch and it had been directed by his daughter Jennifer, plus it stars "Twin Peaks" alum Fenn and the director of photography worked on the series as well. While technically proficient, the film is terribly flawed by occasionally hammy performances by everyone, especially Sands and the inexplicable Bill Paxton (yes, he is in the movie, though he may never admit to it), and additionally by terribly stilted and unoriginal dialogue. On the plus side the film deals with some fascinating ideas, such as the border between love and obsession and the notion of the 'boxes' that we put ourselves in emotionally. The ending will come as a bit of a surprise to most, and it helps if you view the entire thing as a fable rather than a realistic portrayl of a story.

Rating:
Summary: Seen it, love David, but dad didn't make this...
Review: I wanted to like this movie because of the sensational way in which it entered the market place -- lawsuits ablazing, etc. AND because of the David Lynch connection. But where dear ol' dad gleefully interjects outrageous violence into strange storylines and seems to tap into the naive nature of humans in strange and frightening circumstances, often bringing those naive humans to a new level of understanding or at least creating an exciting performance, THIS Lynch's debut is awkward, stilted, and not very sexy. Julian Sands' performance is so overwrought and irritatingly mannered it's like watching a 6 hour improve from a bad student actor trying to break some Guiness record for sniffling, sniveling whining. Sands can be good, but this was so artificial feeling and cloying, it has affected my enjoyment (negatively) of every movie with Sands I've seen since. What I remember most about this movie is that I wanted it to end as soon as it began. Gothic moods and a sensational plot idea are not enough to save this piece of drivel.

Rating:
Summary: Pass the Advil, please
Review: Kim Basinger had to pay $9 million to get out of this train wreck; it was the best money she ever spent.
"Boxing Helena" is Jennifer Lynch's attempt to be quirky and bizarre like her famous daddy (director David Lynch of "Blue Velvet" and "Twin Peaks" fame). Apparently, if you can't make a good movie, then make it VERY confusing, thus allowing room for the inevitable group of people to pull out their "you just didn't get it" trump card. Oh we got it, all right...and it stunk on ice.

Helena (Sherilyn Fenn, apparently doing Lynch a favor)is a sarcastic, conceited wench that apparently had a one night stand with Dr. Nick Cavanaugh (Julian Sands)- he's smitten, she's not interested anymore. Helena has appalling taste in men, because she goes from whiny Dr. Nick to macho poster boy Ray (Bill Paxton), who sports a hideous mullet hairdo. Dr. Nick is consumed with jealousy and obsession, and begins stalking Helena. One of the funniest (albiet unintentionally) scenes takes place in Helena's apartment. It's never stated exactly what this woman does for a living, but she has lush digs, and even a full bar in her bedroom. Ray and Helena have an artsy roll in the hay, which is intercut with scenes of Dr. Nick "running" (I put that in quotes, because it's obvious Julian Sands is running in place). After said sex scene, Ray is sprawled on Helena's couch and leers, "Come back to Daddy". Not with that David Cassidy 'do, Ray. Helena snarls that she's bored with him. "Check, please!", Ray grunts. Way to keep your dignity, my man.

The entire film is filled to the brim with this type of bad dialogue, which only makes you want to laugh more. At some point, Nick tricks Helena into going to his huge mansion, and she ends up running into the road, where upon a truck hits her. Is she dead? Sadly, for the audience, no. She awakens in Nick's bed to find he's amputated her legs to make her his prisoner. After she tried to throttle him, he cuts off her arms. All throughout the film, we see shots of the Venus de Milo. Ah! Way to jam the "plot point" home. The entire reason for this movie is unclear to the audience, but Lynch apparently would have us believe that a woman can fall in love with a man who hacks her limbs off to control her. Fat chance. And the ending is the biggest cop-out; in fact it's a "Bad Movie Making 101" mistake. Supporting roles by Art Garfunkel (who sports a truly odd hairdo, even for him) and "That 70's Show"s Kurtwood Smith do nothing to juice up this wretched chum bucket. Watch it purely for the comedy of bad writing/directing, nothing more. The only plus this movie has going for it is a fairly decent soundtrack.


Rating:
Summary: A little of inside wind, a lot of atrocious acting
Review: My best friend is a mad Lynch fanatic. As part of her completist attempts, she made me watch this movie despite it being made by a Lynchie offspring and not the main man himself. I'm a big fan of Sherilyn Fenn ever since her turn as Audrey in "Twin Peaks" and Julian Sands in "The Killing Fields." After laughing through most of the love interest sequence, the ridiculous attempt to mimic Fellini's "La Dolce Vita" fountain scene, the ludacrious wind that seems to monsoon the inside of Sherilyn's bedroom, I have to conclude that this was one of the worst movies ever written. I have to ask WHY exactly did the Enigma soundtrack was chosen? (...) history and Bill Paxton screaming hysterically in the last scene, there is no reason to watch this movie than for camp, high camp.

Rating:
Summary: The Flowers Are Fresh.
Review: Of all the love stories ever filmed, this has got to be the most touching and realistic. I have recommended it to many friends and even gave it to one couple as a wedding present. It is outstanding in every way!

If you have never seen this movie, I will not spoil it for you. I will say, though, that Helena is the perfect woman. I mean perfect! Literally every man's fantasy.

I wish I could say more, but you need to be surprised when you see it. Get it. Today. You won't be sorry.

Rating:
Summary: Classic Bizarro Cinema!
Review: Often a film of such a bold and original nature gets blasted by critics, and indeed that is what happened to Boxing Helena. When considering that these same critics overly praised such Hollywood Summer tripe as Star Wars Phantom Menace and Men In Black, their panning of this and other films fall flat! Boxing Helena is a daring, imaginative exploration of one man's dangerous obsession. The direction is tight and artistic, the acting top-notch and the script a highly definative character analysis. I'd gladly give more stars, but MGM did a terrible injustice to this film by offering a bare-bones DVD. Though the price is right for what it is, the lack of the Signature Lazer-Disc extras is disappointing to say the least.

Rating:
Summary: I love my fellow man too much to recommend this to ANYONE!
Review: Oh...how many ways can the English language convey 'GARBAGE.'? The best two words ever combined to illustrate garbage are 'Boxing Helena.'

Let's just overlook the fact that the premise defies any reasonable suspension of disbelief. (And while I agree that some films stretch that...you can work with said films on said suspension if given half a reason through other attributes of the film...which even THIS can't provide) The story, while great for a short story read, (Stephen King's 'Survivor Type' is far superior in terms of frivolous amputation) just doesn't seem to work for this medium. Although, to be fair, I think the fault for this lies also in the screenwriting, directing, 'special effects,' etc.

The acting is the final nail in this coffin. If the actors were directed to play up the camp nature of this story, it might have worked as a black comedy...but the cast attempts to raise the level of this titantically-sunk piece in a futile attempt at legitimate filmmaking. Bill Paxton has all the prowess in the part of Ray as if he were a first-time soap actor.

Please...please...if you love your DVD player at all...do not taint it with this!

Rating:
Summary: provocative concept but extremely uneven in every way
Review: Okay. As a huge David Lynch fan (I gather like many folks who went to see the film), I thought I have a look at his daughter's film debut (and only film to date? I wonder why) to see what all the fuss was about. I remember the film when it was in theaters a decade ago. I also recalled the whole controversy over Kim Basinger's departure from the project.

Seeing the DVD on the shelf in my favorite video store, I decided to give it a chance. Well, I have to say I don't see what the big hoopla was all about. The film played like a pumped up B movie potboiler melodrama and/or parody of one. Because Jennifer Chambers Lynch couldn't decide on the "tone" of the film, we are left to guess what her intentions were. I agree with other reviewers that the camerawork is extremely pretentious in a bad way and the script leaves much to be desired.

Dr. Nick Cavanagh (Julian Sands) is obsessed with the very chilly and cruel Helena (Sherilyn Fenn) after having a one night stand with her awhile back. She loathes him and wants nothing to do with him. His equally chilly and cruel mom has just passed away and left him the palatial family estate. He moves in and things go downhill for him from there.

I think if this film had been released under more subtle circumstances such as the work of a first-time filmmaker and been thought of as an experimental indie instead of commercial studio fare by the daughter of David Lynch, it would have been received more positively. The controversy may have generated audience interest in the film initially but it certainly didn't sustain it. I would argue it actually hurt the film's reception in general.

I like the idea of exploring the nature of a man's sexual obsession and his enslavement to it but like many others, I don't buy into "Boxing Helena" premise. Set mainly in this mansion of sorts, Cavanagh is Dr. Frankenstein and Helena is his "creation." Is his idealized woman one without arms and legs? Is beauty just skin deep? We never get a sense of "why" Nick is obsessed with her. He has a seemingly understanding girlfriend - why Helena over her. Additionally, Fenn's character of Helena is so underdeveloped and one-dimensional. She does okay in the part nevertheless. Sands' Nick is also at a loss as well. I'm thinking a derivative of a Norman Bates for the 1990s. With all his mother issues, you would think an intelligent man would seek a shrink asap. At least, his colleagues at the hospital should have noticed the doctor's odd behavior and institutionalized him on the spot. Poor Julian Sands - he is not a bad actor but seems to be stuck in some bad movie projects. Also, why is Art Garfunkel in this film!?!? Bill Paxton has a supporting role as Helena's studly, wannabe rocker/musician (?) boyfriend but he is also underutilized in the film except for acting out the macho man that Nick isn't apparently.

Also, one thing I did find hilarious are the extra-textual references to Sands' earlier film, Merchant-Ivory's A Room with a View (1986)in which he played the enigmatic hero George Emerson who romances and wins the young heroine Lucy Honeychurch, played by actress Helena Bonham-Carter! If you watch the film, pay attention to the soundtrack and dialogue.
Is Lynch taking a stab at Merchant-Ivory's polite notion of love's passions? Maybe and may not since there isn't any guiding focus to the film.

Though highly flawed, you may want to have a look and have fun playing the critic.

Rating:
Summary: Whatever Happened to Julian Sands?
Review: Poor guy got stuck in this movie. That's what. After watching A Room With A View I immediately bought Boxing Helena. Big mistake. Even renting it would have been a waste of money. I heard from friends it was a horrid movie but I was going to watch it with an open mind. At least if it was bad I could stare at Julian Sand, hear his wonderful accent ane be content. No....this has got to be the worst movie made. Some of the scenes were downright laughable. When Sherilyn Fenn get her legs run over by the car....the way the scene played out made me and my roomates burst into laughter.

Couldn't control my giggles at Bill Paxton with a mullet overacting in every scene. Julian Sands character was such a wimp. In his case, hamming his performance up might have been better in this movie. Didn't care for him at all, even with his sexy accent. Sherilyn Fenn, I was wishing Julian Sands character would take our her lungs.

(...)

The ending....it could have been ten times better without that silly dream sequence.

And don't get me started on the sex scene. Julian Sands kissing HElena Bonham Carter at the end of A Room With A View was ten times sexier than the scene in Boxing Helena.

If I could give it less than 1 star I would. I wondered why after seeing A Room With A View, how come I haven't seen him in anything else. After watching garbage like Boxing Helena I understand. Must try and find another good Julian Sands movie now, if there is one to be had besides A Room With A View. Boxing Helena was not it.