Helen

Helen (2008)

  • 33% of critics liked it
    (6 reviews)

  • 48% of users liked it
    (383 ratings)

Ashley Judd headlines this earnest psychological drama centered on the monumental inner struggle of Helen, a successful music professor and happily married mother suffering from severe mental illness. After years of suppressing her bipolar disorder, Helen suffers a crippling emotional breakdown.… More

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R, 2 hr.
Directed By
Sandra Nettelbeck
Written By
Sandra Nettelbeck
Genres
Drama
In Theaters
Jul 30, 2010 Limited
On DVD
Aug 10, 2010
E-1 Entertainment

Critic Reviews

  • Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times

    In roles that could have devolved into arias of melodrama, the cast never overplays its hand, fighting the omnipresent melancholy in small ways rather than large.

  • Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail

    The film is agonizingly slow.

  • Aaron Hillis, Time Out New York

    Two hours of knife-wielding and shrieking later, nothing significant or profound is gleaned...

  • Nick Schager, Slant Magazine

    A PSA masquerading as an actual drama.

  • Jim Slotek, Jam! Movies

    I wish the movie itself had mood swings as wild as Mathilda's. Judd's depression is relentless.

Read all 6 critic reviews

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

  • Chris G


    Helen (Ashley Judd) is an accomplished music professor. She has a wonderful daughter (Alexia Fast). She has a great marriage to her lawyer husband (Goran Visnjic). Even with all of these things going for Helen, she feels like her life is spinning out of control. At first it's a… More

  • deb .


    <b>"I was prepared to fight. I wasn't prepared to lose"</b> -Helen Ashley Judd provides a strong performance as "Helen" a loving wife, mother, talented musician, and professor who becomes strangled by severe depression. Her mental illness… More

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