Reviews

I was really looking forward to seeing Elle, especially since Isabelle Huppert is one of my favorite actresses. Just look at "The Piano Teacher". She is phenomenal! Have to say I did have some reservations reading a review that mentioned one brutal rape scene. OK. I can handle that. Not a fan of violent films but one scene. Really wanted to see it. So that's where it goes wrong and there are multiple things. First of all, you can see the story line. Huppert plays Michelle who is divorced from Richard. They have a son Vincent who is a clueless millennial with a pregnant girlfriend Josie. Michelle calls Josie, the girlfriend, psychotic. Curious since Michelle grew up with a sadistic serial killer father and it is intimated that she helped him with his crimes as a child before he was caught and imprisoned. This has made Michelle something of a celebrity and not in a good way. She has grown up and made a life for herself, married, had child, has real relationships, and runs a very successful video game company with her friend Anna. Anna is married to Richard. Michelle's next door neighbors are Patrick and Rebecca.

The film starts off, yes that's correct, starts off, with the rape of Michelle by a ski masked intruder. She does not call the police but instead takes a bath. Later on she is raped a 2nd time, by the same ski masked intruder. Yes folks, there isn't just one rape scene, there are actually SIX rapes scenes if you include her day dream of killing the rapist during a rape. Sigh. It's a lot of rape scenes. The story plot has a lot of red herrings involving boys who work at the video game company and someone has made a violent video piece of Michelle getting raped by one of the creatures from the game. OK, Seven rape scenes in total if you count that one. Eventually the rapist is exposed, which is her next door neighbor and Michelle and he go on to have what could be questionably called consensual sex. Some other reviewer suggested that this explore how far one would go to fully embrace one's sexuality to the extent of sadomasochism and role-playing. What hogwash. The only thing I got from the film, was that her father was a sadist and killed people. And that coincidentally as an adult she gets involved with her neighbor who is a violent rapist. Ultimately this long, tedious film, saved only by Ms. Huppert's acting, as she is in every single scene, ends with the son coming in and killing the rapist.

It's all very confusing and convoluted. I thought the story could be tweaked a bit better. It seems to me that Michelle sets her son up to interrupt the rape to help him in some way grow up. And that the killing of the rapist, helps her to become a nicer person.

Does that sound like a good movie to you? I found it very disturbing and very long. I would have rather watched it on video. Sorry Paul Verhoeven, but a Michael Haneke you, are, not.

Having worked in the mental health field for many years I can tell you this film does an outstanding job both in script, directing and acting with portraying a woman with major depression and suicidality. The performances by Ashley Judd, Goran Visnjic and Lauren Lee Smith (also Alexia Fast) were at least Oscar noteworthy. Why has this film not gotten more attention? And I am surprised by the rather mediocre vote average on this website. Most likely because it is portraying DEPRESSION and BIPOLAR DISORDER in all their worst forms and that isn't easy to watch. It isn't easy to live with nor is it easy to watch the deterioration of people you love.

Ashley Judd does an outstanding job playing Helen, a twice married woman and mother of a teenager daughter who suffers a relapse of her Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Goran plays her lawyer husband who has no knowledge of her previous psychiatric experiences and must watch his wife sink into the abyss.

What I didn't understand were the reactions of Helen's students at the college. They wouldn't have known what was affecting her, it could be cancer so would they have walked out? I think someone would have inquired on her medical condition. Also you cannot terminate someone with a medical problem or can you?

Mental Illness is a subject we don't discuss but with the prognosis that in 10 years it will be the number one common health problem in the world and is the leading cause of disability with Bipolar Disorder are number 6th as leading cause of disability and then you have ADHD, Autism and the Pervasisve Developmental Disorders which affect 1 in 110 children, then you see the responsibility and need for film makers to make these films.

*********SPOILER************** Also portrayed in this film is Ashley Judd's character Helen getting treatment called Electo Convulsive Shock Therapy which is a very real treatment and performed in local hospitals all over the world. What the movie doesn't show and is the really ugly side of Major Depression are those young men and women who chronically try to commit suicide in various ways. I had a patient whose wrists were so heavily scarred from slicing it made me wince to look at them and she could take a light bulb or a jar of cosmetics and break it in a second to slash.

Gosh darn I keep thinking about Mystic River. I left the theater yesterday and thought "THIS STINKS". But I've had time to mull it over and I think I've figured it out. The movie is very existentialist which I actually studied alittle once upon a time in college. **SPOILERS** You have Dave who makes the "choice" to get into the car with the sexual abusers. They did not force him, he did have a choice. He becomes a victim. He marries a woman who ultimately becomes a victim....Again it is her choice! Why else would the woman who has been married to this man all these years just go on and blab "my husband is a murderer". What did she think would happen considering the history of the "Savage" brothers??? Laura Linney's character at the end "you can take over the town" she says to her husband, after he has committed murder of a friend who was there for them after the death of their daughter! It's just too farcical unless you understand the theory of existentialism and this movie showing by example. Jimmy (Sean Pean) is a criminal by his own choice and indeed continues that choice when he murders Dave. Sean, (James Bacon) is an observer..... He observes Dave, he observed the 911 call, he observed and not participated in his marriage. The PROBLEM I have with the movie, is how jovial Penn and Bacon became at the parade. I don't think this would have fit from the book. And if Penn hated the Harris boys so much, why would he send them $500 every month? Wouldn't his wife have insisted he give the money to them? It just can't be understood by actual human nature, it's unbelievable, but looking at their actions purely philosophically I guess you can appreciate the movie.

Existentialism is an interesting belief. I had a teacher that was a pure existentialist. It basically says you have the life you have by your choices. Websters says: it is a theory which stresses the individual's responsibility for making himself what he is. Mystic River is an example of this.... it's not just a 2 dimensional story line and in that sense I give it & Eastwood kudos. Sean Penn was VERY GOOD, however just a few times especially during the murder scene abit too unbelievable. Everyone else was just great. I just have a real problem with the ending. Bacon gives Penn a shoot you gesture? What the heck is that about. Again a real problem with the ending. Any comments? Guess I'll have to real the book. 8 stars out of 10. (Sorry Clint, Seabiscuit will win Best Picture by a nose!)