Helen, a university professor, has long been suppressing a deepening depression that she attempts to hide in her professional life, her marital life and her role is a mother of a teenage daughter from a previous marriage. The film not only deals with the tragedy for Helen but also with the problems of her husband David (Goran Visnjic) in coping with a woman so ill and the exasperation he feels.

I can’t vouch for how accurate “Helen” is in its portrayal of all of the symptoms and behavior involved and the professional attempts to deal with them. But I can vouch for the impressive performance by Judd as she gradually breaks down and has to realize the need for help when the depression reaches a head. Visnjic also makes us see the near impossibility of living with a depressed person. One may get impatient with David and at times feel that he needs to be more tolerant of his wife’s problems. Easy to say. Despite what David must endure, Visnjic brings out the deep feelings David has for Helen and his desire for them to have a life together. The film also pays attention to how the situation painfully affects Helen’s daughter (Alexia Fast).

The one especially quirky aspect of the film is the understanding relationship that builds between Helen and a deeply disturbed student of hers. Lauren Lee Smith makes that character, Mathilda, as intriguing as she is messed up in an effective and affecting performance. I’m not convinced that some of the abrupt changes we see are accurate—I’d have to leave that to a professional familiar with such a depressive. But it is certainly possible. I will never forget an acquaintance who had been treated for depression and came to my apartment with her parents for dinner upon release from a hospital stay. She was effervescent about her new insights in life and enthusiastic about the future she now envisioned. Two weeks later she jumped off a bridge to her death.