BOXING HELENA
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1993 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: No, it's not a sports film. This
macabre and erotic story story of frustration, obsession, and
revenge could almost make an episode of TALES FROM THE CRYPT.
It will probably turn off many viewers, but for others there
will be a certain fascination. This is a moderately well-
done film if somewhat selective in its appeal. Rating: low
+1 (-4 to +4)
Dr. Nicholas Cavanaugh (played by Julian Sand) has overcome his unhappy childhood--mostly. The neglected son of a great surgeon is himself a great surgeon. He has a beautiful house, an attractive mistress, and a king-sized obsession. The object of his obsession is Helena (Sherilyn Fenn), a stunningly beautiful woman with whom he has had sex once (as apparently has just about every able-bodied man available) and who now wants nothing to do with him. Forget his status, his position as chief surgeon of his hospital, he cannot stop himself from thinking about and even stalking Helena ... even to the point where he is climbing the tree outside her bedroom window in order to watch her love-making. Nick tries to invite Helena to his home only to be treated with contempt when she comes to a party he is throwing. He lures her back to the house the next day only to have her escape, running from the house and into the path of a hit-and-run driver. Nick could take her to the hospital, but decides to treat her in his home, amputating both her legs and making her his prisoner. Eventually, when she tries to strangle her captor, Nick will amputate her arms also.
What we have then is a rather ghoulish variation on John Fowles' THE COLLECTOR and at the same time an erotic fantasy. Nick lives out his dream of having his beloved Helena dependent on him and at the same time at his mercy. She obviously has objections to him personally, but he hopes if he is sufficiently disarming she will be left without a leg to stand on. The ending of the tale will be disappointing to some, but one that has a time- honored tradition, particularly in early film.
BOXING HELENA is directed by Jennifer Chambers Lynch, daughter to David Lynch. Her father probably would have done the same story every bit as weirdly but it also would have been full of images that would be meaningful only to him. His daughter's style is at least comprehensible. Perhaps as one allusion to her having a famous father, incidentally, Lynch includes on the soundtrack the aria "O mio babbino caro" ("Oh my dear little papa") from Puccini's GIANNI SCHICCHI. Speaking of Puccini, to convey the upper-class feel of Nick's house Lynch uses as background music to scenes in the house no less than four arias from Puccini and also fills the house with Greek statuary--indicating she does know high class when she encounters it. Of course the primary piece of statuary, a reproduction of the Venus di Milo, does fit thematically into the film.
There are some problems with this story, but it does show promise for Lynch. My rating is a low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
att!mtgzfs3!leeper
leeper@mtgzfs3.att.com
.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews