Boxing Helena

I don't understand why people don't appreciate this movie. You have to realize that the beginning of the movie establishes how obsessed the main character is with Helena. She reminds him of his mother. Then he does not just have a "dream" about what happens like some people suggest. He is taking medication and drinks it down with a glass of wine. It is suggested that if he does not take the meds strange things happen to his mind. The hallucination helps him to realize how he needed to stay away from Helena before his obsession made something bad happen. It is established in the movie that he has some serious psychological problems to deal with because of his mother. I also find it amazing how they managed to turn the tables and have Helena realize that no one would ever love her the way he does. The seen where Bill Paxton comes in and is repulsed and Helena begs him to leave is amazingly powerful. I loved Julian Sands and Sherilyn Fenn. They were both perfect. He was pitiful and she was raw. Keep an open mind and watch for the meanings behind what the actors are doing.

''such a nice fantasy'' ?????

To me the whole point of this film was to wrap you up in what is an extremely sick and obsessive male fantasy, make you almost believe it is OK, and then at the end you look at what you have accepted and realise it for what it is.

Boxing Helena is not comfortable watching, but I think a brilliant and involved portrayal of how people(men generally) justify and accept the most controlling acts and confuse them with love.

A surgeon (Julian Sands) becomes obsessed with the seductive woman (Sherilyn Fenn) he once was in an affair with. Refusing to accept that she has moved on, he amputates her limbs and holds her captive in his mansion.

After receiving an NC-17 rating by the MPAA, the film was given an R-rating on appeal and released in the United States in September 1993, but received critical backlash and was a financial failure. Gene Siskel was one of the film's few defenders, writing, "I went to the theater to see it expecting the worst," and he called it, "a brave little movie that explored the provocative issue of how some frustrated men channel their inability to love a woman into cruelty." Genre fans might like it, because of the familiar faces -- Sands, Fenn and Bill Paxton. It does suffer from having no one really likable in the plot, and a few twists that may not sit well with some people.

The reason this film was so despised by critics is because they believe that all films graphic and disturbing in content should be taken seriously. Not so. Julian Sands creates a truly despicable character here, and the more we hate him, the higher the testament to his performance. Easily the best of his career. Sherilyn Fenn, the finest actress of her generation, is only slightly more sympathetic in the titular role, and only because of what happens to her! About the Basinger controversy? I'll never understand that. Fenn is ten times more beautiful and infinitely more talented. A hilariously sick, visually stunning, highly entertaining film.

Don't pay any attention to the silly people giving this 4.8 and trust me when I tell you that this is a deep psychological journey into the depth of one person's narcissistic rejection that is so damned possibly true that it needs to be watched if only for the education and warning. The 4.8 is due to pretentious 'pro' reviewers thinking that the film is in bad taste etc when in fact it is a tour de force worthy of so much more... If Daddy Lynch had of made it then it'd of gotten a 7+ but because it is the daughter of the great man then the haters are out to hate. A heavy heavy film...