HELEN

Germany/Canada, 2009, 120 minutes, Colour.
Ashley Judd, Goran Visnjic, Lauren Lee Smith, Alexia Fast, Alberta Watson, David Hewlett.
Directed by Sandra Nettelbeck.

Helen had very little commercial release. In fact, it is not a particularly commercial film. Which is a pity since it treats a very serious theme with intelligence and sympathy. The subject is depression.

German writer-director, Sandra Nettlebeck, had experienced the suicide of a depressed friend and read up on the issue. She took a number of years to write this project which has finished as a German- Canadian production.

The story is not unfamiliar. Helen is married to a successful lawyer and her daughter, by a previous marriage, lives with them. She teaches music theory at a college. Everything seems almost perfect as the film opens (after some credits footage of home movies showing a happy Helen and her daughter) with a birthday celebration.

However, signs soon appear that all is not well with Helen. She sleeps fitfully, cleans up obsessively, comes in from jogging to her husband’s office, somewhat suspicious, she breaks down, begins to withdraw and weep. There are scenes where she is hospitalised, where a lawyer argues that she can’t be kept in the institution, there is more than awkwardness at home, deeper withdrawing and overwhelming depression. It has a profound effect on her husband who has no experience of how to cope with someone he loves suffering like this. Her daughter is upset.

This is all as might be expected from this kind of plot. What makes the difference is the performance by Ashley Judd as Helen. Someone remarked that the actress disappears inside her role so that we see only Helen. This is right. And this is a great value to the film as the actress makes us frighteningly aware of how much Helen is suffering, the overwhelming nature of depression and the inability to snap out of it as so many people would wish.

Helen has made the acquaintance of a music student, Mathilda (Lauren Lee Smith) at college and finds her again at the hospital since she also suffers from depression. They offer some mutual support, Mathilda being a good listener and finding a value in life by supporting Helen. Helen moves in with her. However, the desperation point is reached. The issue of contemporary shock therapy is also raised.

Goran Visnjic is sympathetic as David, the husband, who did not know of his wife’s previous episodes and is torn between trying to understand, trying to do the right thing but not knowing what to do.

The screenplay opts for hope so that the audience is not overwhelmed by the depression that does lead to suicide attempts and deaths. It is not a lecture on psychology or therapy or a study of how a family can cope. Rather, it is a story that takes its audience into the lives of its characters and asks for empathy.

1. The impact of the film, a gruelling experience for the audience, with some hope? The portrayal of mental illness? Its effect on the sufferer? On those who love the sufferer, carers? Doctors and psychiatric staff?

2. Helen’s world, her home, the world of music, David and the law, her daughter and school? Middle-class Americans?

3. The home movie during the credits, Helen and her past, Julie, her husband, happiness? Later watching the films? The reality of her life? Her initial breakdown, depression after childbirth? Her being in the institution? Her leaving Julie as a baby? Getting custody, leaving Frank? Marrying David? The tone for the film?

4. The initial party, the celebration, the singing of Happy Birthday, Julie making the cake, David and his pleasure, the friends and their support? Later Helen alone?

5. Helen’s life, waking in the morning, preparing breakfast, permissions for Julie to go out, her going to work, the classes – and the later class where she was unable to cope and the students retorted badly and walked out?

6. The signs of her illness, not being able to sleep, tidying up the party dishes, the house? At the college? Her meeting with Mathilda? Her letting her out of the college?

7. Helen’s collapse, the manifestations, getting up at four o’clock in the afternoon and not aware of it? The run, going to the office, her suspicions of David and his secretary? At home, weeping, the collapse? Going to the doctor, the interview and the questionnaire, her telling the truth, the doctor’s advice, the tablets?

8. Trying to cope at home, reluctant to take the tablets? More and more withdrawn, lying down, unable to communicate with David, saying she was sorry? Looking unkempt, no makeup? A hardening of her attitudes?

9. The institute, Doctor Sherman and her strong stances? Her not being able to cope in the institution, her encounter with Mathilda? Confronting Doctor Sherman about leaving? Employing the lawyer, the petition to the judge, the questions, the lawyer’s ingenious questions? Her going home?

10. The character of Mathilda, at the college and playing her instrument, the initial encounter with her boyfriend and his rough behaviour, her weeping, his calling the doctor? In the institution, the encounters with Helen?

11. Mathilda’s story, with men, sexuality, empathy with Helen, helping her at the institution? Her talking with Helen? Her going out, the pickup? Helen at the beach, in the water? The kiss? Her seeing Helen with Julie? Her becoming bedraggled? With Helen at her home, her kindness? Her forgetting to pick up Helen from the institution? On the roof, at the end of her tether, the dog, chasing it, her death?

12. David and the effect of the experience on him, not aware of Helen’s state, at work, taking time off, the reaction of the staff, losing his case? At home, trying to deal with Helen, talk with her? The sexual encounter and his anger? At the hospital, the flowers, Helen and her outburst, especially about him telling the truth to Julie? With the doctors, his incomprehension, impatience? Having to learn? His secretary driving him home, the temptation, his going into the house? Finding Helen collapsed? Taking her to the institution, committing her?

13. Helen, in the institution, in and out? Her decision to stay, with Mathilda? The shock therapy and her consent? The experience? Her time with Mathilda, their talking, knowing that Mathilda could empathise? Her telling David of this? Finally accepting herself, the effect of the therapy, feeling better, looking better? Wondering whether she could recover her memories or not? Calming down, wanting her past but knowing she might not be able to recover it?

14. The character of Julie, teenager, her relationship with her mother? At home, with David? Going to stay with her father? Her father and his inadequacy? Julie and her upset, her angers? Frank and his visit, the issue of custody and threatening Helen? Julie and the visit to the hospital and her dismay?

15. Helen finally talking to David, David and his exasperation yet his love, trying to recover the past – with hope?

16. The family reunited, the optimistic ending? Audience empathy with a sufferer of this kind of depression, bipolar experience? The reality of those who love the sufferer, of the carers? Understanding and not understanding? Advice from those who do not understand? Yet the possibility of healing?