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The Virgin Suicides

The Virgin Suicides

List Price: $14.99
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wonderful
Review: I loved this movie. It really stole my heart. Its not for you if you are crazy about action movies and dont like movies with a slower pace, but if you dont mind that you will love it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: unique
Review: This is a great movie and very unlike most movies of now. it's very unique and excellent!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME
Review: Please, for those of you who have red the book, don't waste your time watching the movie. Although the actors did a good job the writers should be shot. The movie left out every good thing that the book had going for it. Just to make sure it wasn't just me I asked friends to read the book and then watch the movie they totally agreed that without the book the movie make no sense. It totally left out the emotion that the book held. The book allowed you to know these people as though they were your neighbors. The movie lost the entire feeling of the book. It never allowed you to know the character. There was no purpose to the movie. Unlike many other movies written from books this movie lost the total essence of the book. The book was amazing. If you like Kirsten Dunst see the movie she did a great job other then that theirs really no reason to watch it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Movie
Review: The Virgin Suicides has definately grown on me. After my first viewing, I thought that this movie was silly and that it didn't reflect the lives of teenagers. After my second viewing, I came to love this movie. All of the actors are great, especially Josh Hartnett (see him in this rather than Pearl Harbor) and James Woods. This is a great movie, though not for everyone.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Seductively tragic
Review: I never thought Kirsten was much of an actress until I saw this movie. It is chilling, a film that stays with you for days afterward. This movie delivers a message to strict parents-It seemed the Lisbon girls had it all, and this was obviously not enough. Josh Hartnett is sure to be a star after his ...portrayal of Tripp Fontaine. This movie is a cinematic masterpiece!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Through Beauty to the Beast
Review: This is a film about moments in life. Some are so horrible you just want to forget them, but can't; others-- and they are rare-- are perfect, but they don't last. First time director Sofia Coppola, who also wrote the screenplay, based on the novel by Jeffrey Eugenides, captures the essence of those moments in "The Virgin Suicides," which is much more than "just" a film. It's a poem. And it's devastating. The story is told from the collective point of view of four young men, friends since childhood, who twenty years later are still trying to put together the pieces of a puzzle and make some sense of what happened those many years ago. All they know, even now, is that the five Lisbon girls were their friends, and then they were gone. And as you watch the story unfold-- like those boys-now-men who can't forget-- you wonder how such a thing could happen, as well.

Coppola (daughter of Francis Ford Coppola) makes a strong case for the science of genetics, as her debut behind the camera as writer/director is nothing less than brilliant. She does everything to perfection. She knows her characters inside and out and how to best bring them to life. And the film is so lyrically presented. With her camera, she captures the beauty of nature, as well as the beauty that can be found in the mundane, everyday things that make up a life, using music and the juxtaposition of images to optimum effect. Tragedy born of ugliness is one thing, but when tragic events are so poetically rendered, it's like an overwhelming darkness loosed upon the world from the abyss, which blots out the nurturing light of the Sun. And that's what Coppola has done with this film. She leads you through the beauty to find the beast; and though you know what's coming, the impact of it all is still staggering.

Central to the story is Lux, second youngest of the five teenagers, a character wonderfully realized by the talented Kirsten Dunst, whose angst is something to which everyone who has ever been a teenager will be able to relate. Repressed and sheltered, she nevertheless manages to express that spark of life roiling just beneath the surface and begging to be freed. Dunst plays her from deep within, with a richly textured performance that is right on the money. And as Cecilia, the youngest of the sisters, Hanna R. Hall gives a notable performance that is poignant and introspective, which underscores the foreboding that establishes the underlying tone of the film.

Excellent, also, as the other three sisters, are A.J. Cook (Mary), Chelse Swain (Bonnie) and Leslie Hayman (Therese). Coppola exacts memorable performances from each of them, and the casting of this film was terrific. Physically, it is easy to believe these five are sisters; and one especially-- Hayman-- bears a striking resemblance to Kathleen Turner, who plays Mrs. Lisbon.

As the mother of the doomed girls, Kathleen Turner turns in a performance fraught with subtle indications to the real key behind the mystery of the suicides: The ever present cross she wears around her neck, her actions following an especially spirited sermon at Mass one Sunday, and the religious icons present throughout the house, which combined with Mrs. Lisbon's attitudes are very telling in themselves. She epitomizes the overprotective parent in her futile attempts to shelter her girls from the world. That she loves them is never in question; the reasons behind her extreme position in their regard, however, is. Are her actions really for "their own good," or for hers? Is her overprotection of them due to the fact that she doesn't want anything untoward to happen to them for their sake, or is it because she couldn't bear it herself? In the end, who is she really protecting? Looking beautiful, but rather matronly-- as befits the character-- Turner does an exemplary job of bring Mrs. Lisbon to life. She is the pivotal character of the film, and she makes the most of it with an extremely credible performance.

As Mr. Lisbon, James Woods gives an affecting performance with his portrayal of a loving husband and father whose position is never quite certain; he acquiesces to Mrs. Lisbon on just about everything, but does have at least one moment when he is able to reason with his wife on the girls' behalf and prevail. Ultimately, however, it becomes a pivotal moment that leads to tragic consequences. But Woods plays it well, taking a rather middle-of-the-road stance with his character, who retreats into his work as a math teacher when life gets too close.

The supporting cast includes Josh Hartnett (Trip), Michael Pare (Adult Trip), Scott Glenn (Father Moody), Danny DeVito (Dr. Horniker), Jonathan Tucker (Tim), Anthony DeSimone (Chase), Lee Kagan (David), Noah Shebib (Parkie) and Joe Dinicol (Dominic). Coppola's film is a taste of what it must be like to be a young girl, growing up in a repressive environment and laden with the reasonless guilt of a self-serving mother who finds sin even in innocence. "The Virgin Suicides" is a brilliant, thought provoking film that makes a profound statement about the artifice of love and the inability to recognize denial in oneself, especially in a parent who seeks to protect, perhaps, only to assuage personal fear. A powerful, beautiful film, and without question one of the best of the year (2000).

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: !!! Extremely Weak Movie !!!
Review: I was really tricked by the recommending reviews I read here that made me buy the DVD. And oh it turned out to be as follows:

1. Cheap budget movie.

2. The story events are so weak with no goal.

3. Terribly weak directing job (turned out it was the director's first trial)!

4. The actors were teens who couldn't do a better job because of the weakness in the story and the directing.

5. Oh and the sound track... don't hold your breath!

When the movie ends (and after you over come your anger), you know that if the story was told differently and filmed by another director... maybe, maybe then it would've been better!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Kind of good
Review: The movie explores the mystery of mystique, seclusion, and youth, albeit brief and obtuse in its exploration. I dunno. I liked some scenes in the middle and pretty much the end of the movie, but I just wasn't very satisfied. I felt kind of left hanging, maybe even a bit cheated, I guess. Most all the actors were fine. Woods is the obvious standout (which is a nice change considering I usually loathe him). I enjoyed the use of the songs, even though there were some glaring anachronisms. Air's score's neat. I think it's worth watching, but I don't think I'd own it. I remember thinking right after I saw it that I would have enjoyed it much more as a teenager. That's not teen bashing, I just think it would have appealed more to the mindset I had as a teen.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: what? HUH?
Review: After reading all the hype and whatnot about this calamity, I was SO hoping to like this flick. Even 3/4 the way through, I was looking for any semblance of brilliance and ingenuity to grasp, so I could eventually belt out "God, what a masterpiece!" At the end of the film, alas, I found nothing. This film, an amazing masterflop, digs too deep to make some social comment but paradoxically enough doesn't dig deep enough. I am a fan of film noir, and I know I'll get ripped up for this review. I agree with the reviewer that stated, "there were holes big enough to drive an elephant through". Actually, one could drive a pack of elephants through some of the holes. All the elements were there: great cast, great music, great sets, great everything -- oops, except the lack of an interesting, developed plot. I guess you can't win them all, Sophia Coppola. Would someone PLEASE redo this film?

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: like a (grimm) fairy tale
Review: this was a strange dreamy little movie, that left you feeling somewhat sedated. after you had seen the film you couldn't help but wonder what it was all about really. yet it lingered in your head for days.


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