Virgin Suicides

"The Virgin Suicides" is a sort of mixed bag. It's a beautiful made movie with wonderful directed sequences in it but the storytelling doesn't always makes sense and is simply terrible lacking at times. A case of 'style over substance' you can perhaps conclude.

It isn't always clear in the movie where the movie is heading to. This is mainly because there are often characters introduced in the movie, who once after they are out of the story, make you wonder what exactly their purpose for the movie was. Characters come and go in this movie and once you think that they are going to play an important part for the movie, they are already gone again. The story isn't always told from the right perspective which makes this movie at times a bit incoherent to watch. This is also due to the fact that at times the movie is set in 'present time' (1999), while the rest of the movie is set in the '70's. Those sort of scene's make it pretty obvious that this movie is based on a book. I'm sure all those element worked just fine in the book but for a movie it is pointless and adds no extra value to the story. A lot of things still remain unclear after the movie has ended, which makes this movie as a whole an unsatisfying one to watch.

I also never really got into the characters. I never quite knew what went on in those girls heads and I never felt their desperateness and their cry for help. The portrayal of their parents (James Woods and Kathleen Turner) was also a opportunity wasted. Instead as strict and tough parents they are portrayed as simply narrow minded people, who have their own ideas about what's good and wrong for their children. If they had portrayed the parents as two completely strict and tough persons, the movie would had become more, claustrophobic, sensible, emotional and more understandable.

The cast is good and has cameos in it from Danny DeVito and Scott Glenn and roles from Josh Hartnett and Hayden Christensen before they received real fame as actors. The movie however isn't really a character movie. The main essence of the movie is put on the style and look of it. For that reason the movie also perhaps feels a bit as a waste of a great cast.

The movie is good looking and well directed by Sofia Coppola but it seemed that they forget about the story at times. It makes "The Virgin Suicides" a bit of an incoherent movie to watch at times. Because of the lacking storytelling the movie never truly becomes emotional or truly understandable and therefor it's nothing more than a just average drama that is good looking but nothing more than that.

6/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

A beautiful adaptation of a great novel.

It is the premises for this admirable work of sofia Coppola to reflect, in precise manner, the universe proposed by Jeffrey Eugenides. The faithfull portrait of characters, atmosphere, life in neighborhood is one of basic virtues.

The second good job remains the acting and the surprising way to define, from Josh Hartnett to Kirsten Dunst the complexity of age, the seduction and vulnerability and life like dream, preserving the ambiguity defining the story.

Not the last virtue is the intensity of emotion of reader of novel, rediscovering details and slices , accurate adaptated.

A film about loneliness, life of small comunity , a couple loving, in his way , cold and precise, their daughters and a form of vulnerability , not surprising for teens, but defining the perspective about life in cold manner.

A strange, surreal flight-of-fancy of death and love, remembrance and how romanticized our memories become. It's also very funny, tending to mix the black comedy of something like "Heathers" with the stifling suburban scenario of "American Beauty" (but it's better than both). Kirsten Dunst is fantastic as the foxiest of five golden-toned sisters in the mid-'70s who feel trapped by their parents (a peculiar, but not overly monstrous couple), trapped by their feelings, trapped by time. They can breathe--and live freely--only in their fantasies (and perhaps in death), but do their realities represent a prison? It's the talent of writer-director Sofia Coppola not to push everything over-the-top; she's careful, she leaves the viewer contemplating the characters' motivations and actions. The situation is indeed unexplainable, yet it is in our nature to expect a resolution, to expect concrete evidence as to WHY and demand an answer. Yet there are no answers to the sadness of the strangers who live across the street, even as we pass through their lives and through their houses. "The Virgin Suicides" offers fascinating food for thought. *** from ****

genuine film talent runs in the blood. sophia coppola's debut is so perfectly done that it'll be hard for her to top. her use of camera angles and shadowing and filters came together so well. i didn't get to see it big screen but you don't need to. it's so elegant and "large" a film.

the acting is subtle and astute. the soundtrack lends to the film better than most films i've seen come out of new hollywood.

the only continuity flaw i saw was the elm tree being in the front yard towards the end after it was so cerimoniously cut down. being the psychological focal point of the film, they should have been more vigilant chequing the dailies...

virgin suicides and american beauty both show profound promise for new hollywood. see them both...

"The Virgin Suicides" is a touching, artistic film which transforms you through various stages of grief to realize what you already knew all along - Suicide is pointless. The film focuses on the lives of five teenage sisters from the perspective of the teenage boys who adore them. It's warm, funny, and totally engaging…not to mention a soundtrack to die for! There are incredible moments of cinematography - images that burn like when mother Kathleen Turner insists that her daughter, Kirsten Dunst burn her rock albums, Kiss, Aerosmith….the overwhelming stench and smoke billows out the doorway behind her when Kathleen throws the rest in the trash…and without a flinch she re-enters the billowing doorway. Only a few rocky transitions between scenes catch you by surprise and pull you out of Sophia's incredible imagination and back to your theatre seat. With wonderful performances by Kathleen Turner, Kirsten Dunst, James Woods and the rest and powerful directing by Sophia Coppola…you're left wondering as any friend or parent would - "why?" "Didn't they know we loved them?"