The Ocean of Helena Lee is musician/writer/director Jim Akin’s ode to solitude, childhood and the very fleeting nature of life. The film revolves around Helena (a debut performance from Moriah Blonna), an almost suspiciously existential twelve-year-old who sleeps in her father’s closet in Venice Beach and dreams of being a writer. While her dad Mickey (Tom Dunne) is a strip club-drumming, womanizing beach bum, he is also an inexplicably charismatic and quite serious philosopher when it comes to his pontifications about life.
Right away, the film starts out with voice over, which is always a pretty tough sell and rather difficult to use compellingly. Blonna’s voice is almost like music itself and she does give a genuine reading, stumbling over words at times and speaking ever so softly. While it is clear Akin wanted this voice-over to mimic Helena’s inner monologue and thoughts, the dialogue is rather clunky and awkward. At one point, the picture freeze frames and more voice over occurs, a la Scorsese, which just feels severely out of place. It seems clear to me the film calls for voice-over, it just isn’t handled in a careful enough fashion.
As a narrative film, Helena Lee also falls flat. The script doesn’t allow for scenes to be fleshed out enough for viewers to care. There are a lot of moments here and there that feel quite nice, but the film goes back to daydream and montage pieces too frequently and at random. Scenes don’t last long enough for us to invest and then Akin hastily moves onto the next montage.
There are a lot of moments here and there that feel quite nice, but the film goes back to daydream and montage pieces too frequently and at random.
The development of Mickey, which could have easily gone cliche and awry, was actually a better point of watching. The only huge opportunity that feels missed when it comes to Mickey is a better showcase of his drumming, at least aesthetically. Something like Whiplash comes to mind in the sense of a filmmaker making the viewer feel emotion through a character’s instrument.
The film does, fortunately, have some positives. The cinematography is lovely and Akin has achieved some gorgeous sequences of Venice Beach, but the camera does a lot of fast paced wandering and tracking through rooms almost in the vein of Paul Thomas Anderson, which feels wildly out of place. Another highlight is Akin’s ability to get two wonderful performances out of his leads. The film, at least, is a great showcase for Blonna, and the fact that it is her debut is pretty startling.
In the end, The Ocean of Helena Lee fails to find its true aesthetic and feels rather unpolished. In addition, the writing, especially the voice over dialogue, feels inauthentic. Helena speaks in unbelievably poetic terms, especially for a twelve-year-old. The film does have some darker themes, and I do applaud the director for handling these well, but I just couldn’t get behind the film as a whole. The Ocean of Helena Lee could have been a tightly crafted ten minute short, but there isn’t enough here to sustain ninety minutes.
The Ocean of Helena Lee opens at the American Cinematheque today at the Egyptian Theatre, May 9-13 at the Steven Spielberg Theatre (within the Egyptian complex) and on May 14 at The Aero Theatre in Santa Monica. Oscar-nominated screenwriter Josh Olson (A History of Violence) and actress/writer/director/producer Illeana Douglas will be moderating the Q&A on Friday, May 8.
Jim Akin’s wife singer/songwriter Maria McKee (Lone Justice) who is also a producer on the film will perform following its opening night at both theatres.
