Boxing Helena (1993)

Overrated and overhyped

Fresh and Exciting

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I enjoyed this movie, but found it frustrating to watch because of its frequent lack of realism. The psychological themes in the movie were fascinating to see played out even though the script was apparently written in a somewhat ham-handed manner. I'm tempted to watch the movie a second time to pick up on what I may have missed in the first viewing.

"Boxing Helena" follows a wealthy surgeon (Julian Sands) with mommy issues who saves his female neighbor, Helena, whom he's obsessed with, after she is hit by a car in front of his house. After amputating her legs, he goes a step further and turns her into a living Venus de Milo and holds her captive in his home.This film has a notoriously bad reputation, and my natural thought prior to seeing the film was "there's no way it's that bad." I was kind of wrong. It is pretty dreadful in a lot of ways. The film was directed by Jennifer Lynch, daughter of David Lynch, who wrote the script for the film when she was nineteen. It is not a bad concept by any means; it's a clear-cut meditation on obsession and power, with shades of Samuel Richardson's "Clarissa," as well as further commentary on male sexuality and the female body.It sounds fascinating, doesn't it? It unfortunately really isn't. The problem with the film lay wholly in its execution, which is amateurish, Lifetime TV-movie-of-the-week status, even by early '90s standards. Unbelievable dialogue doesn't help matters, and the film plods for much of its duration, lacking the sufficient writing necessary to really carry it. The actors here try their best, but even in spite of decent performances, they mostly become voiceboxes that showcase the script's weakness. Julian Sands and Sherilyn Fenn are both great actors and actually have some chemistry on screen, but again, the dialogue renders their performances mostly unconvincing. Bill Paxton, Kurtwood Smith, and Art Garfunkel are also along for the ride here in supporting roles which, again (mainly in Paxton's case), are melodramatic and really shed further light on the weakness of the script.The film wraps itself up just as uneventfully as it opens, and left me feeling like I'd just witnessed a massive lost opportunity; a solid concept spoiled by feigned pathos, weak dialogue, and amateurish cinematography. Sands and Fenn are the highlights here, but even they can only do so much. It's worth watching for the camp factor, which is where the film has ultimately found an audience. 4/10.

Dr. Nick ("Hi Everybody!") Cavanaugh (Julian Sands) is obsessed with the sexy but incredibly unlikable Helena (Sheryl Fenn) who he once had an affair with. When she pretty much rejects the guy, she ends up being hit by a truck. Does this deter him? No! It just means that he'll amputate her and keep her for himself.Directed by David Lynch's daughter Jennifer, "Boxing Helena" is a movie that at first sounds like a perverse, strange little movie. Instead, it ends up being more of a mix of a pretentious art house movie and a dull 90's soft-core flick (complete with Enigma's song "Sadeness" playing during a sex scene.) Worst yet, the whole thing is a mess. The acting is atrocious, with Sands playing an unlikable, uninteresting, unsympathetic and spineless man, while Fenn plays a character so bitchy that you wonder why any man would want to be with her. Even Bill Paxton (someone I normally like) is unable to lift this up any, as he is also terrible (though that's more due to the terrible script.) At least his hair is outrageously bad, though it's no match for the one Art Garfunkle (yes, THAT Art Garfunkle) has. Add a terrible ending and obvious symbolism (a bird in a cage, how clever!) to the mix, and you get a terrible movie.Little fact: While more is known about Kim Bassinger and the movie, what is less talked about is that Madonna was also offered to play Helena, but turned it down. When the star of "Swept Away", "The Next Best Thing" and "Shanghai Surprise" turns the movie down, you know you have a dud.

My only recommendation for seeing "Boxing Helena" is for the short scenes flaunting Nicolette Scorsese. Director Jennifer Chambers Lynch should thank me for my saying so, because upon many a heterosexual male once reading that and remembering Nicolette from her role as the gorgeous lingerie saleswoman in "Christmas Vacation", there should be a spike in "Boxing Helena" rentals/purchases.Julian Sands plays a physician who is obsessed with Sherilyn Fenn, an ex-lover. Fenn doesn't dig him too much, however. When she suffers a terrible accident, Sands goes to town with her extremities and she is left a captive at his mercy."Boxing Helena" is depressing, uneventful, morbidly perverse in a boring sort of way, and ultimately an unmemorable waste of time. This, for me, was the turning point for Julian Sands where his career took a nose dive. In my opinion, it did little for Fenn's struggling career either, which has never seemed to completely lift off the ground.