Ray Meets Helen marks the modest return of Alan Rudolph to
filmmaking for the first time in 16 years. Sadly, those who care are probably
fewer than those who noticed he was missing. As with his mentor Robert Altman,
it was always a little miraculous that Rudolph was as prolific as he was,
considering his rigorous insistence on sticking to his unique personal vision
in film after film, virtually non-stop from the late 1970s to the early 2000s,
somehow managing to attract backing and distribution deals on the basis of the
participation of a handful of actors just famous enough to reassure the
investors. I’m not sure if Rudolph ever had a “hit,” and it’s very possible
that none of his films even earned back their budgets. Yet considering his
catalogue of great films – including Welcome
to L.A. (1977), Choose Me (1984),
The Moderns (1988) and Equinox (1993), to name just a few – his
stunning lack of box-office success is all the more cause for praise since he
seems to have kept finding ways to persevere. The irony of all this is that,
while Rudolph’s films might not be commercially minded, they are immensely entertaining,
warm and accessible, hardly comparable to the unpleasant and off-putting films
by the likes of Todd Solondz or Lars Von Trier. Ray Meets Helen reunites Rudolph not only with the director’s chair
but with his most frequent star, Keith Carradine as Ray, a private detective
suffering from poor health and financial woes. Amid a series of characteristically
quirky Rudolph coincidences, Ray crosses paths with Helen (Sondra Locke), an
eccentric and equally destitute widow. In different ways, both simultaneously
come into large sums of cash and set about treating themselves to a few more-or-less
innocent extravagances. The biggest change that occurs immediately is how they
are treated by others. A maître d’ who barely looks them in the eye when they
are poor now treats them like royalty after being shown a handful of money. Sensing
each other as kindred spirits, Ray and Helen navigate a budding romance while
trying to determine if they – and each other – really want the life of luxury they’ve
glimpsed. Far from a maudlin Bucket List kind
of Hollywood film, Ray Meets Helen is
quiet, charming and completely in its own world; one that no one but Alan
Rudolph could have conceived.
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