Helen, 2009

Helen, 2009
Director:Sandra Nettelbeck
Cast: Ashley Judd, Goran Višnjič, Lauren Lee Smith


Stage: Home theatre

Helen in short: Helen has it all: friends, an attentive second husband, a cheerful teen daughter, musical talent, and a university teaching job. Then, something's amiss: is her husband cheating, does she have a fatal disease, does her past haunt her? There's a quick hospitalization, a disclosure, a bond with one of her students, Mathilde, and a dark chasm that seems to be opening in front of her: can Helen do anything about the problem she won't discuss, or will it swallow her?



Preps: I don't know anything about the movie, just a recommendation from a friend. It's good enough to check it out.


Reality: Wow, it can blow you away. You have a perfect job, family, relationship and all of the sudden, you go depressive, without any obvious reason. And try to kill yourself. Drive everyone around you crazy in caring about you, caring what you want and trying to help you. A difficult piece, making you think about these things. What if the fairy tale goes under in a few seconds, because you snip it out of the sudden?

Judd's role is perfect, and cast is brilliant. I am not familiar with such cases, so I cannot tell from real life, nevertheless, you will feel helpless and if this is the case, the director has done her job brilliantly. I love the tension she's making around herself, finally a true drama I enjoy watching. With the mouth wide open to what can happen to you just in a second, if you don't pay attention. Will make you also appreciate status quo and being healthy in a long run. Maybe also force you to indulge the moments you have and not wait for happiness to come by, but to grasp it with both hands as it is, in present.

You see some upgrade, as she recovers up to a point. But nothing is the same and nothing can change what she's done. Is remorsement and being aware enough? You can never tell. And it all gets so fragile you are just waiting for it to fall apart again.




My personal rating: 6,0 (what if you go nuts in a while, appareantly without a ground and lose it all due to your looniness? Worth checking it out. )


Helen on IMDB

Double Jeopardy, 1999

Double Jeopardy, 1999
Director:Bruce Beresford
Cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Ashley Judd, Bruce Greenwood


Stage: Home TV selection

Double Jeopardy in short: A woman framed for her husband's murder suspects he is still alive; as she has already been tried for the crime, she can't be re-prosecuted if she finds and kills him.

Preps: Remembering I have seen this one a while ago, and I liked it. Since it's a Thursday evening and I don't feel like going anywhere, I think this is a good selection.


Reality:
The movie is a good setup of betrayal/vengeance/lost love/prison charm. Ashley is playing an innocent (maybe naive?)framed wife, that sits her sentence for a few years for a crime she didn't commit. Finds herself among other cons being tutored what she's supposed to do. Finds out she can kill her husband (who is still living and for whose murder she was convicted) again and noone can touch her. So we pursue her in the other half of the movie while she's trying to find the liar (husband), get back her teen son and live again.

The movie has some decent action, some great dialogues - the scenery however is poor and you can see that the director had to cut down his budget for some of them (you can practically see the picture instead of the sea in the first few scenes by the house), then also later in the movie. This is a pity, because even though the movie has potential, those "savings" cost it a preminent spot among others.

The cast is good, however not brilliant. The story will fill you with empathy for the girl and a quest to find justice. But nothing really more from this. For people that love the genre, it will be solid and good. For other population, maybe even not worth seeing at all. Jones has a way of making an act brilliant or really average. Well, in this case it's a bit average. The same goes for Judd.


However, you do learn how to lose a guy you don't want to date in an instant:

Handsome Internet Expert: Hey, so after this is done, do you wanna go get a drink or something?
Elizabeth 'Libby' Parsons: Yeah, sure. I just have to check in with my parole officer.
Handsome Internet Expert: You were in jail?
Elizabeth 'Libby' Parsons: No, prison. There is a difference.
Handsome Internet Expert: Why? Too many parking tickets?
Elizabeth 'Libby' Parsons: No, I was convicted of murdering my husband.



My personal rating: 6,0 (a pretty decent piece also to see again. I like Lee Jones and adore Ashley Judd, not a tremendously great performance, but very watchable :)


Double jeopardy on IMDB