Product Details

• Actors: Ashley Judd, Goran Visnjic, Lauren Lee Smith, Alexia Fast, Alberta Watson
• Directors: Sandra Nettelbeck
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: E1 Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: August 10, 2010
• Run Time: 120 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B003M986TS
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #61,551 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Helen" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

“Ashley Judd’s performance is nothing short of riveting.” – The Huffington Post. On the outside, Helen (Ashley Judd) has the perfect life – a loving family, a beautiful house and a successful career – but when her suppressed mental illness resurfaces, the world crumbles around her. Crippled by depression, Helen befriends Mathilda (Lauren Lee Smith), a kindred spirit struggling with bipolar disorder. Together the two find the solace they had been seeking.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As Dark and as Static as the Illness it Depicts, August 15, 2010

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Helen (DVD)

Sandra Nettlebeck both wrote and directed this somber, intense study about clinical depression. The film is long, is a one-note song, and is in need of editing and lightening - or is it? What Nettleback has created is an atmosphere that very likely simulates the way the world is viewed and coped with by those who are suffering from suicidal depression. It is a lesson as much as it is a film.

Helen (Ashley Judd) is a popular professor of music theory, and accomplished pianist, and the wife of handsome and successful lawyer David (Goran Visnjic), and mother of a charming teenager Julie (Alexia Fast) all of whom we meet at a surprise birthday party for Helen. But very gradually Helen begins to change from the ebullient happy woman to a more quiet, pensive, obviously injured woman. Concentration fails, she cannot get enough sleep, her connection to the world begins to crumble and finally she breaks into the depths of depression. Despite the support of David and Julie and denying the medical assistance of psychiatrist Dr. Sherman (Alberta Watson), Helen continues to sink deeper into the profound sadness of clinical depression. One of Helen's students, Mathilda (Lauren Lee Smith) seems to be one of the few people with whom Helen can relate: we are lead to discover Mathilda suffers from a similar disorder. The truth about Helen's medical history finally surfaces: she has had suicidal ideation and clinical depression in her past When married before to Frank (David Hewlett) and soon after the birth of Julie (?postpartum depression?) Helen required psychiatric hospitalization, her marriage failed, and she ultimately met David who has been the ideal husband and father for Julie. Helen escapes her home, is hospitalized and undergoes shock therapy after a suicide attempt - her only apparent understanding contact is the nebulously drawn Mathilda. How Helen emerges from her illness and reorganizes her life is the ending of the film.

The film benefits greatly from the moody musical score by Tim Despic with the aid of James Edward Barker ( and Schumann and Schubert...) and the mood is kept appropriately dark by the cinematography by Michael Bertl. The quartet of actors - Judd, Visnjic, Smith, and Fast) - are outstanding as is the well selected group of actors for supporting roles. But for this study of the depths of depression - mostly dark scenes of Helen lying in bed or weeping - is, at two hours, a bit more than an audience can handle. In order to appreciate the quality of this film the viewer must accept the fact that the main point of the film is a study of the crippling illness of depression. And that it does extremely well. Grady Harp, August 10

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent depiction of what it's like to suffer from clinical depression, June 4, 2011

By 

Marley Hansen "Marley Hansen" (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Helen (DVD)

This movie really hits home with what people that suffer from clinical depression go through, and how they shut out those that love them most, through no fault of their own, and how family members are helpless to help them. The struggle to overcome inner demons and depression is a road that is not understood by those who do not know how debilitating this illness can be. Ashley Judd gives an outstanding performance as the professor, and Goran Visnjic is so incredibly believable as her husband, who tries to reach her and help her out of her abyss. Lauren Lee Smith plays Mathilda, Helen's student who loses her mother to the same condition, and suffers from the same depression portrays her character as the lone person that is able to understand Helen, through support and presence - Excellent.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant, October 18, 2010

By 

T. Ryan (PLAINFIELD IL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Helen (DVD)

Having lived close to the problem of bipolar depression for many years, I can say that this film captures the nuances perfectly. Bravo to the players and to the filmmaker.