Helen

Featuring a riveting performance by the gifted Ashley Judd and infused with intelligence and detail by Sandra Nettelbeck, a storyteller who clearly knows intimately the parameters of this universe, Helen transcends the usual limitations that besiege portraits of mental illness and depression. In truth, for all that we’ve learned about depression—its causes, its cures, and the breadth of its affliction—the old clichés and stigmas still dominate our tales and popular culture. What Nettelbeck and her colleagues have accomplished is an unapologetically moving examination that offers no simplistic answers and refrains from reductively singular happy endings.Helen focuses on a woman with an apparently perfect life: a successful academic, she seems happily married with a wonderful daughter. But we witness a sudden breakdown and a journey that is enigmatic and heartbreakingly real. When solutions prove elusive and Helen is hospitalized, she forges a relationship with Mathilda, a fellow traveler who both aids and traumatizes her life’s course. When death seems the only answer, and the safe haven of family gives no respite, the pain of bipolarity is exhausting and overwhelming. Told with poignancy and insight—and ultimately concluding with as much courage as inevitable sadness—Helen is the work of artists whose craft and sensibility are special.
CAST
Ashley Judd, Goran Visnjic, Lauren Lee Smith, Alexia Fast, Alberta Watson, David Hewlett

Sandra Nettelbeck - Sandra Nettelbeck was born in 1966 in Hamburg, Germany, and studied film production at San Francisco State University. After leaving the United States, she worked as a television journalist for a couple of years and made her debut directing the feature-length television movie Loose Ends (1995). In 2001 she completed her theatrical feature debut, Mostly Martha, followed by her second feature, Sergeant Pepper, in 2004. Helen is the fifth feature film she has written and directed.

Screenings:

Fri. Jan 16 8:45 p.m. - HELEN16LN Library Center Theatre, Park City
Sat. Jan 17 9:30 p.m. - HELEN17GN Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, SLC
Mon. Jan 19 11:30 p.m. - HELEN19LL Library Center Theatre, Park City
Thu. Jan 22 11:15 a.m. - HELEN22RD Racquet Club, Park City
Sat. Jan 24 6:30 p.m. - HELEN24DE Redstone Cinemas, Kimball Junction