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.
Review of Helen
