Lawlor and Molloy translate their majestic visual skills perfectly in their feature length debut; in the end it is only the cardboard acting which prominently lets Helen down.

Given that it is underlying storyline is quite harrowing, this film was well made and beautifully executed

Nice idea, cack- handed production. Mercifully short.

This is a very arty film, it's very sort but it seems to go on forever, this is because of the way it's shot. I really like the way it's been shot, beautiful colours and some really interesting angels. From an art and style point of view I like this film. The plot on the other hand is dull, and although I think it's an interesting idea, the story drags, and because of this I wanted to drop off. The acting is also strange, very wooden and no passion, the actors look uncomfortable, but I think that's the point. The film is worth a watch, as it is good to see a film that's not your typical, put A into slot B, but to be honest you need to really love the art of film to enjoy this piece.

I watched this film at the International Thessaloniki Film Festival in 2008, but never found it on the database here, or better, never bothered looking for it in the database here. There are some movies that I believe could easily have been a short film, and this is one of them. Tedious, slow, self-indulgent, contrived, bad copycat, directional grandeur wannabe with a rotten cherry on top. A movie Gus Van Sant would make from the womb, or a film student as a drama <i>Blair Witch Project</i> specimen. I'm attacking this movie harshly, but I just had it with films who want to be like other films and fail. Remember Duplass' <i>Hannah Takes The Stairs</i>? Well, this is <i>Helen Takes The Park Path</i>. One of those films I felt like slitting my wrists during! Some endless 79 minutes those were for me..The best moment in it was that it ended.

An ambitiously meditative film, but just as the story grips you it ends, leaving you mystified beyond the call of the enigmatic plot. Ultimately, Helen doesn't quite work, but it remains an oddly haunting experience.

Super weird, badly acted, badly directed, was. It intentional tho? Nice to see the quayside in a film tho.

Malloy and Lawlors first feature film has its origins in short films, mostly acted by non-professionals and bearing this in mind it is much clearer what the duo are aiming for. Taken strictly as a narrative film it will inevitably be disappointing, as the central mystery surrounding a missing teenager is never solved, nor even speculated about. Further as a character piece it is equally as enigmatic about Helen, a foster-care teenager who stands in for missing teen Joy in a police reconstruction and starts to embrace the opportunity to reinvent herself. This idea starts to develop when she strikes up relationships with Joys parents and boyfriend, but this too is left enigmatic. Where it does succeed is as a mood piece, with the formal, even clinical cinematography, the vivid colour palette and the often self-consciously subdued acting styles creating a striking cinematic mood to match the mysteries it contains. The limitations of its origins do show, but it is a very interesting experiment.

Can't understand why Mark Kermode thinks this is such a great film.

Helen is a stylish and thought-provoking film. The cinematography impressed throughout and the visuals were, at times, quite mesmerizing. Overall I felt that the film 'worked' well! Helen is, in roughly equal parts, art and traditional film. There are a couple of scenes that are cringe-worthy in their content, and I would describe the acting as 'adequate'. But these are minor criticisms when considering this work as a whole. I would recommend this film!

good, a bit different from what i was expecting, but still quiet good for a British film.

01-12-09 " Two girls are lost. One has disappeared, the other is trying to find herself."

Some of the worst acting I have ever seen in my whole entire life. Gash gash gash gash.

Helen is a very slow paced yet engrossing film. Some reviews have said the acting is poor and lets the film down but it's quite clear from the dialogue that this was intentional. "Try to think about what you are doing and not about why. It'll be easier that way" The characters are only capable of speaking factually and without emotion which leaves them and the world around them a distant and cold place. Helen very much feels like a British take on Micheal Haneke's "Emotional Glaciation" trilogy and as a debut proves that Lawlor and Mollroy are two talents to watch out for in the future.

There are two directors listed on this. I'm wondering why it just didn't completely click for me. The film is well made by directors Joe Lawlor, Christine Molloy, but that could be the reason. The performances by Annie Townsend, Sandie Malia, Dennis Jobling and Sonia Saville ar pretty good.

badly acted which makes it surreal.

Hypnotic and quite wonderfully eerie, 'Helen' manages to be more unsettling than almost any mainstream chiller despite the complete absence of on-screen gore and the obvious limitations imposed by its minimal budget. The story revolves around identity: Helen (Annie Townsend), has been brought up in a care home. She is asked to play the part of Joy, a classmate who's gone missing, for the purposes of a police reconstruction. As the investigation continues, Helen begins to take on more and more aspects of the missing person's life. There's nothing malicious or calculated about Helen's behaviour, as the friendly words she addresses to Joy in voice-over make clear; she is just touchingly curious about what it's like to have the love that Joy had from family and friends, but which has been missing in her life. Questions of identity are a recurring motif in the film, as are juxtapositions between the reassuring and the unnerving; the grim police searches in beautiful woodlands, and innocuous scenes overlaid with washes of the fabulously creepy electronic music that recurs throughout to great effect. Critical opinion has divided sharply over the acting style seen here from the non-professional cast; for me, it is problematic only because it's inconsistent. Some of the cast, notably Sandie Malia and Dennis Thompson as Joy's grieving parents, really inhabit their characters; others perform the parts in mannered ways that can most kindly be described as non-naturalistic, and the contrast with the conventionally convincing players makes the latter group seem like plain bad actors. The dialogue, too, has peculiar variations in tone, from the natural-sounding to the weirdly mannered. Sometimes the awkwardness seems apt, as when assorted professionals make stilted attempts to reassure Helen and her classmates; at other times it's jarring. It's hard to imagine even the most socially unskilled 18-year-old talking about kissing and sex in quite the way we see Helen do in one scene with Joy's boyfriend Danny (Danny Groenland). Still,' Helen' is a bold, atmospheric and ambitious debut from writer-directors Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy. Their production company is delightfully named Desperate Optimists, and I think that 'Helen' justifies their optimism.

If you love intelligent cinema then this is a film you must see. Beg, borrow or steall to do it, but make sure you do. It is quite simply one of the best British films in years, and may be one of the best debuts ever. The story is almost, but not quite irrelevant. It is kind of like the Return of Martin Guerre in terms of assumption of identity but without the subterfuge. The film starts with a beautiful slow motion credit sequence. Most reviews concede how beautifully shot the film is but go on to criticise some of the directorial decisions, the actin and even the accents!! They simply miss the point. This is a film which is not afraid to be minimal; indeed in this regard it is much more akin to European (particularly Scandinavian) cinema than Hollywood. There are interesting juxtapositions throughout. The beauty of the park against the air of lurking menace or the drama of the Police search interrupted by a mundane phone call discussion of domestic arrangements. The acting appears stilted at points, but we should remember that the characters in such scenarios are "playing roles" and perhaps in real life such characters do appear to be acting badly. Is it not the case that many of us cope with highly charged emotional situations by demonstrating a lack of affect? Some decisions may have been driven by budgetary considerations. The Police uniforms for example are very unconvincing; yet this only adds to the ethereal feel of the piece. One note of caution. Whilst this film has a "PG" rating it does have a real air of underlying menace. For this reason, in spite of the lack of overt violence I would hesitate to take a young child to see it. This is afilm which deserves a much wider audience than the arthouse, but I doubt if it will get it. The co-directors have done a marvellous job but special mention should be made of Annie Townsend, who is "Helen". This 19 year old turns in a classic performance and deserves to go on to a long rewarding career on the screen.

Definitely one of those films you either get or dont. Beautiful visuals and stacks of themes, it has to be seen on a big screen. I was tired so I'll probably see it again when I'm more alert. Sort of like a really slow cerebral CSI with no jump cuts.

The UK critics have been divided over Helen. There's no doubting the premise is strong and that the themes that develop; self-reinvention etc are important although not always subtle. Whilst it moves at a slow pace, that's fine, and aesthetically, Helen defies its modest budget. There seems to be the influence of Antonioni hanging over the film too; particularly L'Eclisse and Blow Up. The non-professional cast are mostly fine but what's difficult to excuse is the utterly banal dialogue that threatens to destroy the credibility of the entire film. I assume the directors went into the film without a working script, improvising as they went along. I was seriously screwing my face at certain conversations - it would have worked far more if they'd kept dialogue to the essentials. The results are mixed, it could have been better if it had played to its strengths more. An intriguing mess.