Ray meets Helen during a random collision of altered fates. They are strangers, over sixty, lonely, luckless. He hit rock bottom in the big city, she on a small farm. It’s a struggle not to give up or in. But then separately and without warning, each becomes overwhelmed by unrelated and extraordinary events.
While it bears many of the thematic and stylistic hallmarks that made Rudolph a reliable figure on the '80s indie scene with such films as "Choose Me" and "Trouble in Mind," this mannered character study comes across as more affected than affecting.
Comprising multiple, loosely interwoven plot threads united as much by the characters' lyrical speech patterns as their end-of-life longings, "Ray Meets Helen" has a wistful, whimsical sophistication that has all but disappeared from movies.
"Ray Meets Helen is political in the sense that matters most. It goes beneath the surface of its characters' differences to show what they have in common - what makes them soul mates."
Moviegoers expecting a sprightly golden-years romance have come to the wrong place. So have those looking for a moody but credible reflection on decades of regrets.
