I vaguely recall some controversy in 1993 when "Boxing Helena" was released, didn't see it then, but always had in the back of my mind to rent the video some day. After seeing Sherilyn Fenn in "Just Write" recently, it re-kindled my interest in "Helena." This movie was written and directed by David Lynch's daughter, only 24, so considering all that, I suppose it isn't such a bad film. But not real good either, just interesting.
some SPOILERS - Fenn plays a beautiful "bad girl" bitch, and a young surgeon with whom she had a brief affair is obsessed with her. She doesn't want anything more to do with him, but his attraction is so obsessive he won't take "no" for an answer. He even climbs a tree at her house and watches her with her lover, played by Bill Paxton before he became a star two years later in "Apollo 13". Lured to her house to retrieve her address book left there at a party, she is running away and gets hit by a pickup. The rest of the film we see his obsession carried out, imprisoning her, amputating first her damaged legs, then her arms, all the while obsessing over her while he quit his job at the hospital.
However, as we find out at the very end, everything after the truck hit her was a dream of his. He had actually called an ambulance, she had undergone surgery, he had been sleeping down the hall, he hears a voice, "Doctor, are you back with us." We learn nothing more about what happens to him or to her. All of which makes the film kind of fall flat like a punctured souffle'. When you then think back on what you saw, and realize it was all a dream arising from his obsession with her, you think, "So what?" I didn't expect "Boxing Helena" to be a very good movie, still, I was expecting something more.
It is noteworthy that this first movie of Lynch's daughter is, thus far, also her last.
some SPOILERS - Fenn plays a beautiful "bad girl" bitch, and a young surgeon with whom she had a brief affair is obsessed with her. She doesn't want anything more to do with him, but his attraction is so obsessive he won't take "no" for an answer. He even climbs a tree at her house and watches her with her lover, played by Bill Paxton before he became a star two years later in "Apollo 13". Lured to her house to retrieve her address book left there at a party, she is running away and gets hit by a pickup. The rest of the film we see his obsession carried out, imprisoning her, amputating first her damaged legs, then her arms, all the while obsessing over her while he quit his job at the hospital.
However, as we find out at the very end, everything after the truck hit her was a dream of his. He had actually called an ambulance, she had undergone surgery, he had been sleeping down the hall, he hears a voice, "Doctor, are you back with us." We learn nothing more about what happens to him or to her. All of which makes the film kind of fall flat like a punctured souffle'. When you then think back on what you saw, and realize it was all a dream arising from his obsession with her, you think, "So what?" I didn't expect "Boxing Helena" to be a very good movie, still, I was expecting something more.
It is noteworthy that this first movie of Lynch's daughter is, thus far, also her last.