Helen

With the tragic loss from depression of a close family member, Ashley Judd filmed this movie long before the death of her mother. In the movie, her character Helen, suffers from disabling severe depression. The movie does an accurate job of showing how severe depression impacts daily life. Sleeping a lot, negative self talk, little tasks become overwhelming and, wanting to isolate themselves are some of the typical symptoms. It's very hard for someone not familiar with depression to understand how disabling it is. It's hard for someone dealing with severe depression to explain how disabling it is. I would recommend this movie.

This is quite something.

Powerful, complete and unrelenting and I loved it. The movie covers all aspects of clinical depression, the sufferer, the partner, family and friends and work colleagues. Leaving no part of the experience untouched or considered, loneliness, loss, longing, desperation, hopelessness and so on.

Acting great, music great and the pacing is perfect. I have seen comments saying shorter would have been better but I disagree. The current length provides the time to wallow or sit in the pain being felt rather than skipping over it to make it more palatable.

The ending is almost irrelevant, it could have ended in a multitude of ways and really isn't important.

Its a tough film but also incredible.

Ashley Judd did a great job portraying Helen, as close to reality as one can get without a narrator adding dialogue to the movie about what Helen was feeling inside. Your brain is on over drive, that's why we sleep so much. We are mentally exhausted from all the thinking, hiding, smiling, pretending. Her episodes mimic depression and many other mental illnesses, General Anxiety Disorder, PTSD, Bipolar 1 and 2, Psychosis, etc. You can read the other reviews for the plot of the movie. But I feel, as an adult woman with bipolar disorder for 40 years now, the film maker should be recognized for her effective methods to reflect back to audience the mood of Helen thru the lighting, the length of the film, the family unaware, the doctors being dismissive. Those things are all very real. That is the state of mental health in this country. We don't educate ourselves about it, so we don't learn coping skills. A lot of families deal with this every day. Helen goes to great lengths to hide her depression in it's early stages, adding anxiety on top of anxiety, which is called kindling. Kindling causes the brain to loose cognitive skills and can lead to psychosis, loss of reality. If you walked out of theatre because it was too hard to watch, imagine waking up every day and knowing this is your life, there is no cure. That's why we kill ourselves, it's not selfish, it's to get out of our pain. Yes the clichés are there, so to that I say if you find yourself suddenly in this predicament, go to an AA meeting, an Al Anon meeting, in order to educate and prepare yourself for this way of life, if it lands at your doorstep. Or don't get educated and walk away, freeing yourself from the darkness. The script for the doctors was not necessarily stereotyped. Most psychiatrist struggle to figure it out because every brain is different, every illness is different. It took 10 years and many traumatic trials to find the right cocktail for me. This movie should be shown the first year of college and then TALKED about with the students. Educate yourself, don't let us suffer in silence.

A painful movie about a woman struggling with severe clinical depression.

Ashley Judd has a knack for giving powerhouse performances in movies no one's ever heard of (did you ever see her in "Bug?"), and she disappears utterly into the character of "Helen," who herself descends into hell when her illness makes an appearance after lying dormant for many years. Let me be clear -- this movie is one long sustained note of agony, and it is not pleasant to sit through. But it's fascinating in its own way, and the thought of it haunted me for days after I'd seen it.

The filmmaker clearly had a very personal and painful relationship with her subject (she lost her childhood friend to clinical depression), and one might think this would make her incapable of retaining the objectivity needed to prevent a film like this from turning into melodrama, but one would be wrong for thinking that.

Grade: A-

This movie is the best movie I've seen to show all the sides of depression. Most movies focus on the depressed person or the family affected, not both. I have bipolar disorder and this movie can give people a glimpse into what it feels like to experience the horrors of deep depression. Ashley Judd did an amazing job. Also, I was also able to see beyond myself into how it affected my loved ones to see me like that. I knew it was hard on them but in my state was never to see it from their point of view.

I am very active in the mental health community. I teach about disorders, lead support groups, and advocate. I've heard many stories on top of my own experiences and been hospitalized several times. Ashley Judd hits this disorder right on. This is a long movie but it is needed to show the story. Nothing too dramatic or exciting happens so if you are not interested in this topic it could be boring. I however, found myself drawn in by the characters. I would put a warning on this movie. If you are in any state of depression it could be very disturbing to you and could send you over the edge. Don't watch it until you are fully stable. Thank you Sandra Nettlebeck for showing the true story of depression in a Hollywood that tries to glamorize it.