Boxing Helena is a poor made film that deserves all the critics that has been send to its credit, but its a decent debut by a 25th young Jennifer Lynch, specially if you consider she starts her career as film director and screen writer as someone who has explore fetichism and depravation on human relations and has achieved at least one masterpiece of suspense and horror on his 2012 film Chained, an impressive low budget film on bondage and crime.However, this is an acceptable debut on a very cliché story on which male voyeurism and fetichism developes not so bad, but not to make this a memorable film, except by the very kitsch use of Sadness by Enigma, and Woman in chains, by Tears for fears, to ilustrate the erotic desire of the male character of the film. This piece of industrial music-garbage make the highest point in the film and remember the crappy musical videos from the eighties that flooded TV screens back in the day, and some usual classical music to add better atmospheric mood than what msrs. Lynch useless tryes to build on tape, who tries to emulate his father, David, whom she has worked on Blue Velvet (1986), making some explorations on themes look alike his.The film is, in my opinion, a good first step of mrs. Lynch trying to make her way, and shows some good details that will be more professionally build up in future films. In that sense I think this is a film that deserves a better rating among movie lovers, and that's why I rate with a six, because its up average films of this type. More in addition to her credit is that she is 25 years old at the time she is filming her first movie, while her female star, Sherilyn Fenn, has 28.

This one-of-a-kind movie is hated by many but certainly deserves some kind of kudos for its uniqueness. I found myself being drawn into this movie; from the initial moments, where I didn't think much of it; to the growing love between Sands and Fenn, to the violent, unexpected conclusion. Jennifer Lynch tries to inject as much of her father's surrealism as possible into the film, so there's lots of symbolism and weird stuff going on. Calling this film "quirky" is an understatement.I remember this as being pretty controversial when it was first released, concerning as it does a man who kidnaps a woman, cuts off her arms and legs and puts her in a box. It's not in bad taste as you might think, although this supposed depravity certainly seems to be one of the film's main selling points (just check the video box for an example). What surprised me most about this film was the subtle message that real love isn't just about sex, but about what the person looks like on the inside instead of the out. There are certainly a number of surprises and twists as the film commences.As I mentioned before, the acting is pretty bad but bearable. The best of the bunch is Sherilyn Fenn, who turns her ice-cold bitch into a realistic, if unlikeable, character. Julian Sands (WARLOCK) overdoes it a bit with his turn as a childish, confused doctor, but to be fair it was a difficult role to play and I can't think of many modern actors capable of pulling the role off totally successfully. Elsewhere, Bill Paxton (with a ludicrous wig) is a cliché and one of my favourite bit actors, Kurtwood Smith, appears as a fellow doctor. But these characters are all unimportant, as the film focuses primarily on Fenn and Sands, and how their relationship progresses as time goes on.This is quite a slow-moving tale, well shot, and there's little in the way of action or gore as you might expect. The actual scenes of amputation are thankfully offscreen. The one thing I didn't really like about the film was the cheat ending, where the entire sequence of events turns out to have...well, couldn't they think of anything else? BOXING HELENA is a real oddity, and certainly worth a look in my opinion, despite the obvious shortcomings.

"Dr. Nick Cavanaugh" (Julian Sands) is an extremely talented surgeon who as a child experienced emotional trauma and neglect from both his mother and father. Because of this he has difficulty relating to women and subsequently becomes obsessed with one particular person by the name of "Helena" (Sherilyn Fenn) who is extraordinarily beautiful but treats him with complete contempt. All too soon one thing leads to another and after a car accident he brings her into his home and performs surgery on her which involves amputating her legs. If that isn't bad enough he goes even further. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this is truly one of the most bizarre movies I have ever seen. Although both Julian Sands and Sherilyn Fenn clearly stood out, other good performances were rendered by Art Garfunkel (as Dr. Lawrence Augustine") and Betsy Clark ("Anne Garrett"). In any case, this is one of those movies that a person will either like or hate--and there will probably be no in-between. Personally, I liked it and rate it as slightly above average.

...but at least it was better than Dune.So in that one regard, and that one regard alone, the daughter of David Lynch has surpassed her father's work.The worst performance of Bill Paxton's career.Nobody in this film elicits any sympathy or even interest...other than a glancing "that guy is okay" for Art Garfunkel.I guess Kurtwood Smith did okay as well, given the absurdity of his lines and the situation his character was placed in - and the ridiculous reaction that was written for him.This thing really is a turd. Not even interesting for the sex or the horror aspect.