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The Virgin Suicides

The Virgin Suicides

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent Adaptation From the Book
Review: I'm always cautious when it comes to watching movies adapted from books I've read. Such miserable failures as "The Beach" have forever left a bad taste in my mouth. The directors and writers are almost always simply to lazy to make their own stories, so they just take someone else's, slap some ridiculous plot changes onto it, and obviously don't have the slightest idea what the novel is really about. They end up with a pointless failure that should never have tried to bridge the gap between reading and watching.

"The Virgin Suicides" is a startling exception to this rule, directed and written for screen with care and simple beauty by Sofia Coppola. She obviously understood this book, and has done a great job editing the book down to a 100 minute movie.

She takes very few "artistic liberties" that other directors might have been much more heavy-handed on, and those she uses enhance the feeling of the film. For instance, after Cecelia kills herself, she re-appears several times, giving her a strange, continuing presence. Also, she enhances several symbolic moments in the film, such as the film Lux and Trip watch about Hurricanes, or when Trip visits the Lisbon house, the show they watch is an obvious metaphor.

Over all, this is a stellar adoption of the novel, with a great cast, director, and script. A great follow up to reading to book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: brilliant, maybe even better than the book!?
Review: this is about the only film i have seen that has been made after the book, that was any good. sofia coppola did and excellent job of showing how tough the lisbon girls life was. she may have even bettered jeffrey eugenides book. this was a brilliant film, and kirsten dunst made a good lux.
there were a few slight changes from the book (in the book mary does not die when she puts her head in the oven, she survives for a few weeks afterward) but they did not make the film worse.
the story is very believeable and the actors all fit their characters extremely well. in england this film is classified 15, which i think is entirely suitable.
i can't wait until sofias latest film "lost in translation" comes out on video and dvd in the uk, as i am sure it will be as good.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I've never been a 13 year-old girl
Review: In spite of my lack of qualifications--I'm a male and was 13 when Eisenhower lived in the White House--I would like to make a few comments about this movie. As I write this, more than 200 people have given plot summaries so I won't add one more.
I think the move is quite awful. If the movie was supposed to be about the feelings of the narrator then I might consider giving the movie an extra "star." Or if the movie was supposed to remind us that "normal" teens commit suicide, that might give it two stars, also.
But a movie should, in my opinion, be more than, say, a newspaper story that tell of a suicide of a teen with the always-asked question: WHY? A movie can get into the thoughts and feelings of the people, give insight into their anger or despair, and still show how parents or friends can be both clueless and a contributor to their problem.
But, except for the pitifully lame statement, "You don't know what it is like to be a 13-year-old girl," this movie does none of that.
Other movies, "Dead Poet's Society" and "Ordinary People", and probably others, have done a credible job with this topic. But this movie falls completely flat in my opinion.
In fact, the plot is so weak that a case could be made that the "suicides" were, in fact, murder. (...)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "You're a stone fox"
Review: Its a wonderful but sad movie, the title gives it away so theres nothing for me to spoil. The acting is good, it gets a tad slow in the middle but it quickly picks up the pace. Perfect movie for a rainy night in. Its a movie to relax to.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Sad, but good
Review: I Just bought the movie, The Virgin Suicides last week, and it is actually quite a good movie. I thought it was terribly sad when Lux got left behind by Trip, after they made love. While, the movie doesn't really tell you why the girls killed themselves, I think it is a very good possibility, that at least part of the reason LUX, killed herself was becasue of Trip. (In the interviews with Trip as an adult, the regret in his voice, seems to lead you to believe, that Trip, in a way may feel responsible for Lux committing Suicide.) I agree with other reviewers, that the reason for ALL the sisters killing themselves is because they wanted to get away from their overprotective parents, and they felt that by dying was the only way.

All and all, I thought the movie was very good, and even though it is not a "happy" movie, it's one that in a way, you can't help but like it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: last review was from a 6 year old
Review: Sofia Copola does a wonderful job directing this film. The book is very dreamlike and full of poetic language - the sort of stuff that often does not translate well into film. However, viewing the film and reading the book, you see how she translated some of the intangilbe qualities of the book and translated them into the film; while leaving still leaving us room to use our imagination. The film is very dark, surreal, yet keeps you captivated by its youth and wonder.

Kirsten Dundst was wonderfully cast in her role. I know that the other sisters had much smaller roles, but I don't think that they were cast as well. We know that the boys are drawn to them, partly by their mystique, but it would have been better to have girls that looked a little more alike and who could have captured more of the mystique.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A movie with a well crafted plot!
Review: The Virgin Suicides is set twenty five years ago in a small community in Michigan, and revolves around the household of the Lisbons. Ronald Lisbon (James Woods) is a mathematics teacher at the local school, and lives in suburbia with his wife (Kathleen Turner) and their five lovely daughters - Cecilia (Hanna Hall), Lux (Kirsten Dunst), Bonnie (Chelse Swain), Mary (A.J. Cook) and Therese (Leslie Hayman). Mrs Lisbon has a rather heavy-handed approach to raising her daughters and this includes severe restrictions upon what they can and cannot do, which for teenagers is not a great thing. The other significant part of the story is the neighbourhood boys who find themselves bewitched by the beautiful Lisbon sisters. Indeed, the story is told from the perspective of those neighbourhood boys and in the form of a retrospective narrative as they look back those twenty five years in search of an answer for what happened to the Lisbon sisters. And that is as much of the plot as I intend to divulge, other than to say that as the title suggests, suicide is involved.

I went into this review with no inkling of what the film was about, having selected it purely because of the presence of Kirsten Dunst. Having now seen the film, I believe that it is one where the fewer expectations one has going in to the film, the better the understanding that will result. And that is not to suggest that this is a film that is really deep, but rather that it is a story that has no real end and no real answer, merely more questions. In that respect it is a most satisfying story that has been created by Sofia Coppola, and thankfully she did resist the temptation to wrap everything up nice and neatly.

Like so many a labour of love, it shows in every beat of the film. Whilst obviously lacking the dynamics of an action film, The Virgin Suicides has this wonderful pace to it, which never drags but never rushes you anywhere. Sofia Coppola has taken the time to let us appreciate the despair, the puzzlement, the wonder and the joy of the experiences in the film. She has allowed the actors the space to bring their characters alive and the whole thing is up there on the screen to see. James Woods is as steady an actor as you could wish for, and this is another fine effort from him. The reactions to the situations he sees are terrific and he brings a solidity and believability to the role of a father trying to cope with situations that are basically beyond coping with. It has been a while since Kathleen Turner has graced our screens, at least in my recollection, and this is no Kathleen Turner of Romancing The Stone fame. This is a much more mature actress and she brings a terrific bland veneer to the role of the mother who can see no wrong in the way she has brought up her daughters.

Kirsten Dunst is proving to be something of a moderate surprise as an actress, and she has a bit more depth than the mere good looks that seems to be driving the adolescent market rather mad. Whilst still a long way short of being a great actress, she brings a delightful coquettishness to the role of Lux, the pivotal lust interest of the film. However, her fellow sisters are no less believable throughout, and as a group this family, whilst a tad unusual, is easily believed and accepted. Josh Hartnett plays the obligatory young male hunk, the guy all the girls swoon over, pretty well and it would seem that this is a role that suits him well enough. He is, however, perhaps the least believable character here for me. Scott Glenn and Danny De Vito make virtual cameos here, and neither are especially memorable.

With a nicely crafted story, and an obviously sympathetic director, the result is a fine film. Whilst I am not going to proclaim Sofia Coppola the second coming of her old man, there is every indication here that if she so chooses, she might well be a director to watch given the right sort of material. Approach this with an open mind and you too might find something here that engages. It might not be pure entertainment, but it is a film that rewards the viewing.



Rating: 1 stars
Summary: So very boring
Review: Sofia Coppola is likely the least talented director ever. Not sure what a director does but Sofia movies are awful.

I saw this four years and still remeber how bad it was. It is that bad.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Psychological.
Review: This movie is a psychological wonderland for analysts like me. All 5 sisters showed how people deal with depression differently. They each could be how others see us, how we see ourselves, how we feel at times, how we think others see us, and how we wish others would see us. Perhaps the boys never existed but were figments of the girls' collaborative imaginations, part of their fantasies like the worldly magazines they wished to travel in order to momentarily escape their hopeless cage. The tearing down of the sick tree, the furniture in the house, the virgin suicide on the football field, and so much more can be analyzed to find deeper meanings in this movie.
But if you are not into disecting, this movie is still good with a complete story of 5 girls and the mystery of why.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The virgin suicides roxs
Review: im giving it one star because that's the least you can give it. kirsten dunst needs to stop acting.


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