Helium

Beautiful story with the power of storytelling. I was amazed at how much emotional material the director managed to fit into this short film. Well done.

Today I went to a special showing of the Oscar-nominated Live Action films. This was a very unusual year because I don't see any clear winner nor did I see any film I disliked. Oddly, however, I didn't see any I loved either and picking the winner is amazingly difficult. If I did pick one, I'd probably bet on "Helium". This is because although there were three super-depressing films about important social issues (the sort of things the academy often like), "Helium" is clearly the most artistic and has a professional quality none of the other shorts can approach.

"Helium" is a depressing little film. A new orderly is working at the hospital and strikes up a friendship with a scared little boy. He's scared because he's dying--and to him, Heaven doesn't seem like a very fun place to go. So, to ease his fears, the orderly makes up a story about a magical place called Helium--because the boy is so infatuated with balloons and dirigibles*. However, before he's able to finish the story, the boy is moved to a critical care ward--one where this new employee is not allowed to go. But he cannot live with himself knowing about this afraid little boy and he decides to sneak in and ease his mind with more stories about the magical land of Helium.

The film is breathtaking with its artistry. Very professional...but also very depressing. A wonderfully made film and one worth seeing...provided you bring along some Kleenex.

*It was interesting that the boy had a lot of models of these balloons and dirigibles in the hospital room. More interesting to me was his Hindenburg model as the swastikas on its tail fins were whited out.

The special begins with Anders Walter's "Helium," a Danish short that follows the life of a young boy named Alfred (Pelle Falk Krusbæk), a terminally-ill young boy who is wasting away in a children's hospital. Alfred, however, has his mind temporarily taken off his illness when he meets Enzo (Casper Crump), a janitor who tells him of a place called "Helium," an alternative place to go rather than Heaven. The idea of Heaven is unexciting to Alfred, and the idea of "Helium" even owes itself to the fact that Alfred loves balloons, blimps, and all sort of objects that fly thanks to air. Enzo makes him a red balloon dog, which he informs Alfred will allow the airship that will eventually pick him up to know where he is at and that he wants to go to "Helium" rather than Heaven. This is a tender short, and another one in the Academy Awards' long history of finding and nominating ones that deal with death and the afterlife. Explored in addition to dealing with death and a relationship that is brewed thanks to a poor circumstance is the constant struggle of being a nurse or someone who spends much of their life around sick people and children. You become attached, and with many of these kids, the end is nigh and you also are one that needs to find a way to let go. Aside from some mawkish tendencies and a short that deals a bit too heavily in the cuteness aspect, this is a fine short film. If you have a soft heart, I foresee the last three shots of the film being something of a rough sit.

This movie undeniably shows the power of storytelling. The animation used to depict the imaginary world of 'helium' is just superb.

However, I feel like the 'real world' could have been better crafted. For example:

• show the cleaner apply for the job and lie on his experience as a cleaner
• get the cleaner to interact with other sick people, who are boring compared to the main child character
• the coffee scene with the colleague: why is the cleaner not in his uniform?Why would he have a jug of coffee for himself?
• the child character seems like a pretty down-to-earth logical child. Yet it looks like all of a sudden he throws away all his critical mindset as soon as he hears the new cleaner. He could have said in a sign of disbelief: 'I was never told this. How come you know and not my parents?'

Bo-focking-hoo. A young boy is dying. It's so saaaad (not really). Luckily, there's a dimwitted janitor there, to tell him stupid stories about a magical afterlife-place called Helium. Unfortunately, the relationship between these two is so forced, and the stories about Helium are so meaningless and without reference, that the movie becomes an unfunny parody of itself. And it doesn't take long before you're hoping the kid will just go ahead and croak already.

Sad music is smeared thickly as the boy's condition is worsening, and the filmmakers begs the audience for sympathy. Yet we're never given any reason to why we should care about this kid at all, other than him being a kid; which is just awful screen writing. But even if the script had been written in a smoother fashion, the fact that anyone would make a film of such a terrible concept in the first place, is mind-boggling. I mean, a dying kid? Really? Could you possibly be any less creative in your plea for emotions?

The overdose of sap is so severely lacking a pinch of anything cute, quirky or fun, that the whole thing ends up as something sticky you want to wipe off your shoe.

I feel dirty after having watched this crap.