A young boy and his sister are drawn into one man's obsessive pursuit of his former lover.
Helen is a young woman running a hairdressing salon; Bob is her boyfriend and local radio DJ; Honda is a mute kid who's secretly taping people's conversation and Smokey is Honda's sister who sings at local bar. New guy in town is the mysterious Martin, who shares some dark history with Helen and observes her from afar at first. Honda falls in love with Helen and starts taping her conversations with Bob, and that leads to reactivation of the Helen-Martin relationship.—Anonymous
In a small coast town in England, the hairdresser Helen is the passion of the ex-convicted now on probation Martin. They were lovers in the past before Martin be sent to prison. Although having a restrain order against Martin, he decides to visit Helen and regain her lover. Meanwhile, the dumb teenager Honda, who lives with his nymphomaniac sister, the singer Smokey, develops a platonic love for Helen, spoiling her relationship with her boyfriend. Dark secrets are revealed in the end of this weird story.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The tragic story of a passionate romance: Martin, just out of jail, returns to his home town on the English coast where he wants to refresh the relationship with his ex-girlfriend Helen. She has a friendship with the 14-year-old Honda who lives with his sister Smokey as refugees in England. Honda loves Helen. Instead of speaking to her, he tapes conversations of other people. So he becomes the witness of several quarrels, also between Martin and Helen...—Marco Radke <[email protected]>
At Farhaven, a British seaside town, a 14-year-old boy named Honda (Luka Petrusic) bumps into Helen (Rachel Weisz), a hairdresser. Honda was running, and Helen was coming from the opposite direction on her bicycle.During that short encounter, he notices that Helen inadvertently dropped her bracelet. Ever since accidentally witnessing the dead body of his mother, who committed suicide in her bathtub, Honda does not speak a word to anyone.Honda is a mute kid who's secretly taping people's conversation and Smokey (Labina Mitevska) is Honda's sister who sings at local bar. Honda listens in on a microphone when Smokey has sex with guys in her bedroom. Honda has a recording of his mother singing a lullaby.However, a now infatuated Honda tracks Helen down and silently gives her back the bracelet. As a result, she starts to act friendly towards him.
Meanwhile, after eight years in prison, Helen's ex-boyfriend Martin (Alessandro Nivola) returns to town. He still pines for Helen but is scared to approach her. Martin shares some dark history with Helen and observes her from afar at first.Frustrated, he pays to spend time with a sex worker named Maxine that has some of her same features.
Both Honda and Martin are shocked to discover that Helen has a boyfriend, a radio DJ named Bob (Ben Daniels). Stalking the couple with a long-range microphone, Honda discovers that, despite having dated Bob for months, Helen refuses to have sex with him. Frustrated, Bob is starting to act aggressively towards her.Thanks to Honda and her older sister Smokey, Bob is tricked into playing a tape of his violent behavior towards Helen on his own radio show. Honda had recorded the exchange between Bob and Helen and Smokey calls into the radio show, while Honda plays the recording on a loudspeaker.Believing all of this was the work of Helen, an enraged Bob later shouts at her on the phone, and the two break up.While driving by the beach, Bob spots Honda with a long-range microphone, figures out what is going on and chases after him. Martin, who had been stalking Bob, takes this opportunity to beat Martin up. Honda's sister believing he was protecting her little brother, becomes attracted to Martin. The two-start dating, but he only seems to have eyes for Helen.
One night, Helen decides to go to a nightclub. There, she bumps into Sam, an old friend, and starts dancing with him. The two hit it off and, leaving the building, they start kissing. However, Helen again refuses to have sex, and the situation turns violent. She is about to get sexually assaulted when Martin intervenes and attacks Sam.Scared by Martin, a distraught Helen runs away. She finds Honda, who was also stalking Helen, and he comforts her. Helen later reveals that her parents died early. When she was 14, an already adult Martin started a sexual relationship with her. Helen is still dealing with the trauma from his abuse.Martin comes by Smokey's, and they share a walk. Smokey can guess that Martin has another woman in his life as he is distracted and not interested in what Smokey has to say. Martin sends roses to Helen at her saloon, but she returns them.Later, Martin comes by the saloon for a shampoo and a haircut, and Helen attends to him.
Martin later appears at Helen's house, and after some talking, the two have sex. Helen is left disturbed by that encounter. Meanwhile, Honda continues to spy on her. While doing some research, he discovers that Martin ended up in jail for charges of manslaughter. Honda goes through previous years newspapers and finds that Martin was arrested when he was found dumping a dead body in Farhaven.
According to Helen, the victim was her father, who died in the struggle that ensued after he found her in bed with Martin. Helen says Martin hit her dad and killed him. They disposed of the body, but Martin took all the blame, as Helen was underage anyways.Helen later asks for a restraining order on Martin. Fearing he will return to jail, Martin decides to leave town, but first, he wants to visit Helen one last time.
That night, Helen invites Honda to her house and creates situations in which he has to take most of his clothes off. She starts touching him inappropriately when Martin knocks on the door. Knowing who it is, Helen orders Honda to remain on one side of the house while she speaks to Martin on the other.At the entrance, Martin and Helen agree to have sex one last time before he leaves forever. While doing it, Martin starts strangling her. Hearing the struggle through his microphone, Honda saves Helen by smashing a bottle on Martin's head.
Hurt, Martin reveals that it was Helen who killed her father and made Martin dump the body. Before Martin can say anything else, Helen grabs a bust and beats him to death. She then convinces Honda to help her throw the body into the river, the same thing she and Martin did with her father's corpse.Then, a blood-splattered Helen approaches Honda, who runs away, traumatized. Helen leaves the town, and Honda resumes his life. His later recordings imply that he eventually started to speak again.
