Boxing Helena

Boxing Helena is a 1993 American romance and horror film directed by Jennifer Chambers Lynch, and starring Sherilyn Fenn, Julian Sands, and Bill Paxton.^[3] The plot follows a surgeon whose growing obsession with a woman leads him to amputate her limbs and hold her captive in his home after she suffers a car accident.

The film garnered notoriety prior to its release after protracted legal battles with Madonna and Kim Basinger, both of whom backed out of the leading role of Helena. It debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January 1993, where it received critical praise. 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.

Plot

Nick Cavanaugh (Julian Sands) is a lonely Atlanta surgeon obsessed with a woman named Helena (Sherilyn Fenn). After she suffers a high grade tibial fracture in a hit-and-run motor vehicle accident in front of his home, he kidnaps and treats her in his house surreptitiously, amputating both of her legs above the knee. Later, he amputates her healthy arms above the elbow after she tries to choke him.

Though Helena is the victim of Nick's kidnapping and mutilation, she dominates the dialogue with her constant ridiculing of him for all of his shortcomings.

Eventually, Cavanaugh's actions are discovered by one of Helena's former co-workers. During a physical confrontation, Cavanaugh is killed, only to wake up and realize that the entire ordeal had been a dream he had at a hospital during Helena's surgery after the car accident.

Cast

• Sherilyn Fenn as Helena^[4]
• Julian Sands as Dr. Nick Cavanaugh
• Bill Paxton as Ray O'Malley
• Kurtwood Smith as Dr. Alan Palmer
• Art Garfunkel as Dr. Lawrence Augustine
• Betsy Clark as Anne Garrett
• Nicolette Scorsese as Fantasy Lover/Nurse
• Meg Register as Marion Cavanaugh
• Bryan Smith as Russell
• Marla Levine as Patricia
• Kim Lentz as Nurse Diane
• Lloyd T. Williams as Sam the Clerk

Production

A legal battle ensued when first Madonna,^[5] then Kim Basinger backed out of the title role – eventually Basinger was the subject of an adverse jury verdict for over $8.1 million.^[6] This caused Basinger to enter bankruptcy. The verdict was then set aside on appeal in 1994,^[7] but the actress later settled for $3.8 million.^[8]

Critical reception and box office

The film performed poorly at the box office.^[9]

The film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival. However, the film received severe backlash from film critics upon its release.^[10] Boxing Helena won Worst Director for Jennifer Lynch at the 14th Golden Raspberry Awards in 1994. An exception was critic Gene Siskel who, on the TV show Siskel & Ebert, admitted "I went to the theater to see it expecting the worst," and 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." Boxing Helena currently holds a 19% "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 31 reviews.^[11]

Music

The score heard during the scene where Helena showers in a fountain, while a party crowd watches, was originally composed by Graeme Revell and based on the "Love Theme" used sparsely elsewhere in the film, with vocals by Bobbi Page. At the producers' request, "The Fountain Song", written and performed by Wendy Levy, replaced Revell's score in the DVD and subsequent releases.

See also

• List of American films of 1993
• Amputee fetishism

References

External links

• Boxing Helena at the Internet Movie Database
• Boxing Helena at Box Office Mojo
• Boxing Helena at Rotten Tomatoes
• Boxing Helena at Metacritic
• Boxing Helena, A Film Review by James Berardinelli