Bored and a little high from having seen the awesomeness of The Girlfriend Experience (our review), I thought I’d prepare for a screening of Surveillance (our review) by checking out Jennifer Lynch’s debut film Boxing Helena. Oh how quickly my afternoon went from uncommon to downright twisted and though the fact that the Lynch marathon started immediately after seeing Soderbergh’s film is pure coincidence, I can’t help but think that I couldn’t have found a better collection of films to watch together.

But this is about the younger Lynch. The one that started her career with a film that seems to have stunted her career for 15 years. So is Boxing Helena that bad? I’m not sure it is though it does provide a glimpse into Ms. Lynch’s take on sexuality, something which is also present in her recent films.

My first run in with Boxing Helena was in the mid 1990s on cable TV. Showcase had a tendency to show “risky” films in the late evening and flipping through the channels one night I caught the last 15 minutes of the film and I was morbidly curious as to how the woman ended up with no arms or legs. Lucky for me the film was re-aired immediately and I caught my first and final glimpse of Lynch’s career.

It stars Sherilyn Fenn (mostly of “Twin Peaks” fame) as Helena, a gorgeous, firebird of a woman who sleeps with and disposes of men like tissue. At some point, she has an encounter with Nick Cavanaugh, a rich but timid man played by Julian Sands who becomes obsessed with her but after much counselling from his good friend (strangely portrayed by Art Garfunkel or Simon & Garfunkel fame) he appears to move on. But he never fully gets over Helena. One night while on a jog, he peeks the woman of his dreams with another man and the obsession resurfaces. He throws a soirée, invites all the right people and to his pleasure, Helena makes an appearance. It’s here that the film takes an interesting turn. A series of events leads Helena to run away (down an embankment) and onto the road where she’s hit by a car and from here on in, we follow Nick and Helena into a twisted world of sexual repression and release.

The film has it’s share of problems. At times it looks more like a commercial or soft core porn but the acting, which is sure to grate on some people, is one of the film’s strengths. Fenn and Sands both have a tendency for over exaggeration but the exaggeration works in the film’s benefit. Overall, the script lacks character development; we don’t learn enough about either Helena or Nick (or any other character for that matter) to accept the actions onscreen but the over amplified performances from both actors de-emphasises that slightly and though it doesn’t compensate for the lack of script, it creates two extremes which we can somewhat buy into. I don’t think they’re exactly the sort of people Lynch had envisioned but they certainly embody some of the ugliness of their relationship and relationships in general (when they turn sour). I say they’re not what Lynch intended because the rest of the film doesn’t come across as ugly and mean as the characters do.

Whether Lynch intended it or not, Helena is a self centered bitch while Nick is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Put the two together and you have two obsessive, ugly people in a twisted relationship. It could be argued that Helena is a woman who was taken advantage of but I don’t see it. She flaunts her actions in Nick’s face and goes out of her way to prove (to herself, to him, to the others at the party) that she’s in control when in fact, she’s just as troubled (maybe even more so) than they are. True, she fight’s her capture but eventually gives into it and it’s difficult to figure out why. And just as you’re trying to wrap your head around the actions and what they mean (if anything), Lynch slaps you in the face with a twist that throws everything out the window and asks you to re-evaluate what you’ve just seen. Now that we know the events were all a part of Nick’s dream, Helena’s actions become less important and we’re left wondering what sort of individual would think up the events as they unfolded. Nick doesn’t make it easy on himself opting instead for a more realistic reaction from Helena. But this is how he, from his limited interaction with the woman, imagines she would react and we don’t have enough to go on to say whether the response is realistic for the character or not. What is Lynch trying to say? Something about the subconscious and how it tends to over exaggerate? Or maybe she’s trying to tell us that the meek are often the most dangerous. And what of the way in which Nick takes control of Helena? He has to physically maim her in an attempt to gain some semblance of control over her and the relationship and still she overpowers him. I still can’t quite follow what Lynch is getting at but trying to unpack it brought up some interesting conversations with my partner who felt the film was a twisted romance. He felt more sympathy for Helena than I did which is something that I found fascinating. It may leave the viewer with more questions than it answers but Boxing Helena isn’t without its merits. The time may be ripe for a re-evaluation.

This apparent fascination with strange sexual relationships may have been festering for 15 years but it’s still alive and well. Though the look of Surveillance is much more in line with the story being told (there’s a grimy feeling to the whole thing), a story which is more concerned with how different people take in, process and remember events, there’s still an underlying sexuality to the entire thing which becomes even more acutely apparent after the twist (and what a twist it is). And how about her upcoming Hisss which features a woman who eats men? Yeah…no sexual content there.

I’m not quite sure what to make of Ms. Lynch though I am happy to see her back behind the camera. It’s also nice to see that she, like Catherine Breillat (though no where near Breillat’s proficiency and extent – yet. I have faith she may get there), isn’t afraid to push the envelope of female sexuality on screen. It may not be at the forefront of Surveillance but it’s there and it’s something I’m interested in seeing developed. I’m game for whatever she has to offer.