BOXING HELENA

In the film BOXING HELENA, a brilliant surgeon, Nick, whose specialty is restoring life to accidentally severed limbs, becomes obsessed with a beautiful woman, Helena, who attends a party in his mansion. She dances semi-nude in the fountain, then leaves. Later, after another visit, she gets hit by a truck, and her legs are crushed. The doctor operates and removes her legs, then installs her in a guest room. After she keeps attacking him with her arms, they suffer the same fate as her legs. However, if this woman has suffered a quadruple amputation, why does she look like a cover model for Vogue in every scene? All that’s left for Helena to do is lambaste Nick’s sexual incompetence, so he vows to become a more sensitive lover. This is nothing but a rehash of the old rape fantasy: a gorgeous object of lust becomes turned on by abuse, domination and voyeurism. Just as tomatoes and rotten eggs begin flying toward the screen, Helena’s old boyfriend shows up and beats the daylights out of Nick.

With a pretense of exploring the outer limits of sexuality and male-female relationships, this story strains credibility to the maximum. This seems particularly surprising coming from a female writer-director, whom one might assume would steer clear of cliches which have demeaned women for generations.