The Virgin Suicides

Rating:
Summary: Film Works As Well As The Novel Did
Review: The thing I liked best about "The Virgin Suicides" as a novel was the poetic, lyrical way in which it was written. Sofia Coppola, in writing the screenplay and then directing it, brought those qualities intact to the film. I don't feel this film is a tragedy. The reader/viewer is told right off that all 5 sisters end up dead without any mincing around that issue. However, this is not some bleak rendering of incredibly depressed lives. The sisters are made virtually mythic. Their story unfolds much like an epic poem where you see them as these 5 perfect, golden girls in an innocent moment of time who, due to their suicides at the height of their possessing those qualities, will always remain enshrined in their perfection. Where they particularly remain enshrined is in the neighborhood boys' memories because these are the golden girls that they all want to obtain for themselves, both now and in their futures. The story is told from their point-of-view and not the girls'. Think of when a figure dies in Greek mythology, and how perfect and golden that figure sits enshrined within his or her myth forever, and I think you have the essence of this film.

Rating:
Summary: Hypnotic
Review: This film was amazing. The entire piece comes off as being a dream or memory(which is what it is), it's so wispy and cryptic. Like memories, the pieces aren't all there. The criticisms I've heard mainly reflect that there is no motivation for the suicides, or that the three 'Non-Lux, non-Cecilia'(i.e., Bonnie, Mary, and Therese) aren't developed. That's the point. The girls aren't intended to be individual characters, but a collective symbol of unobtainable beauty and desire always out of reach. The only reason Cecilia and Lux are as developed as they are is that Cecilia killed herself first, and Lux played a vital role in one particular boy's memory. If another boy had told the story, he may have recalled a version where Bonnie played a key part.

Also, the nature of the suicides was meant to be unknown. That's the premise of the movie. The movie is shown from the perspective of the neighborhood boys, who have never found out why it happened. The movie retains the voyeuristic sense by not letting us know anything the boys never did. In fact, the only time we see inside the house(with the exception of Cecilia's initial attempt, but that is only because the news spread regardless) is when another character is in there whose story eventually gets back to the boys.

The film works best in the first half, when it is virtually without a main plot, and is made up only of fantasies, dreams, and memories. Once we get to the present-day(in the narrator's sense) storyline(the dance), it becomes more like a normal teen flick(while still holding true to the dark suicide theme) and loses the surreality that keeps you captivated in the first forty or so minutes. However, by the time of the sisters' final act, the film has descended back into its incredible feel of 'this-isn't-happening', and the Virgin Suicides pulls off exactly what it promises: a mysterious, seductive tale we can't hope to understand.

Rating:
Summary: Flawless adaptation of an excellent novel...
Review: I generally hesitate before watching movies that are based on good novels; most directors, in trying to capture pages upon pages of detail and inner monologue into an easy-to-swallow 2-hour feature, tend to screw up the original author's intent. However, citing a particular fondness for Jeffrey Eugenides' book, curiousity overwhelmed me and I rented Coppola's VHS version this past weekend. Absolutely stunning...Coppola stays meticulously true to the underlying theme in this haunting tale about five other-worldly sisters and their respective grand finales, while creating a cinematic experience both beautiful and psychedelic in scope.

The plot has been spelled out in earlier reviews, so I won't re-hash it to bits yet again. Like the novel, the movie version of "Virgin Suicides" is told from the perspective of an anonymous neighbor-lad who, along with his friends, is obsessed with the Lisbon sisters. And, like the novel, the movie ends on a note of speculation; there is no comforting closure or solid answer to explain the fate of the sisters (which may irritate viewers who opt for happy endings). The visuals in the movie are very 1970s-esque - especially the lighting - which stays in perfect stride with the time period. I don't know...I'm not the most educated film critic, so I can't discuss the details of lighting and panoramics in depth. Just know that it's an interesting piece of eye-candy and very unique to watch.

The acting is perfect. I was tremendously happy about the cast exclusions of those dippy pop-teen staples that tend to emerge in every movie involving young folk. Kirsten Dunst plays the perfect nymph in her role as Lux and Josh Hartnett, previously beyond my limits o' toleration, plays an excellent Trip. The older members of the cast - Kathleen Turner and James Wood - are equally (if not moreso) outstanding as the blind and controlling Lisbon parents.

In the name of brevity, I'll conclude with this: Excellent, excellent adaptation of Eugenides' book. Visually flawless. I would, however, recommend reading the novel before seeing the movie. While Coppola's version can easily stand on it's own, it helps to have the entire contents of the book holding your perspective up.

Rating:
Summary: A brilliant directorial debut of a strong novel
Review: The novel The Virgin Suicides haunted me when I first read it, but over the years since then I haven't thought of it much. There were times that the last times - "In the end it didn't matter that they died, or that they were girls, but only that we loved them" would surface and I'll try to place them, but when I heard about the film coming out I had to see it. I read the novel again afterwards, and have to say that the film is well adapted.

The Virgin Suicides tells the tale of five sisters, daughters of a bookish teacher and a forceful, religious and oppresive mother. The youngest of the daughters attempts to kill herself because of her sadness with the world... the sadness only a 13-year old girl could possibly feel. She survives, and for a while it seems that her mother might relent enough to let her and her sisters live. But it isn't to be. Through various developments, she successfully kills herself and it is that shadow that propels the other daughters to eventually do the same. But it isn't their deaths that is important. The Virgin Suicides is a tale of young love, idealogical and distant love and the perceptions of youth. It is inherently melodramatic, and possibly even pretentious. But it's still beautiful, haunting and very well directed.

If you feel that the characters (the daughters) are not developed, you must understand the perspective of the story: the five sisters do not represent real human beings. They are shadows of the boys' perceptions of them, even Lux and her sexuality. They are 'visions of womanhood that no wife could match', shadows of sadness and dramatics that have great impact on the boys who admire them from afar, but very rarely treat them as humans. We do not learn who the sisters really are because the boys are not capable of knowing who the sisters really are. The tale is told in the half-mythic vein of memory, with the shadows of the girls' suicides hanging long on the collective makeup of the men who were the boys.

Rating:
Summary: It Was The Best
Review: Watching this movie made me realize that I shouldn't commet suicide. The fact that I am in my teenage years right now and watching this movie really helped me out a lot. I think all teenagers must watch this movie b/c you'll learn a lot from it. If your a parent of a teenager you must buy this book b/c it might just help them out. I hope to buy the movie on dvd so I can watch it at boarding school.

Rating:
Summary: SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL
Review: "The Virgin Suicides" has proven to be a term that shall forever remain dear to me. This film, dealing with the tragic story of the 5 Lisbon sisters, is a beautiful and truthful conversion of the novel. It is visually brilliant, the scenes, sights and shots resonate in my mind, even as I write this review. James Woods and Kathleen Turner are excellent as the mysterious Lisbon parents. The directorial contribution of Sophia Coppola (a name that cause me to be apprehensive about this film) is astounding. She was able to see to it that the cinematic conversion of the novel retained all the beauty and mystery of the book. Also, worthy of mention is the musical contribution by Air, who put forth a perfect score, contributing as much to the film as any of the characters.

Rating:
Summary: HAUNTING...
Review: I THIS FILM IS NOT EVERYBODY..I can't stress that enough. IF you have a true open mind for film, and want to see something different, this may be the movie for you. It is the writing and directing debut of Sofia Coppola, daughter of Francis Ford Coppola. I thought she did an excellent job considering this was her first film.

I watched this film, not aware that it was adapted from a novel. Usually I think reading the book first really helps in understand more about the movie, but from what I've read about this particular book is that it doesn't help to understand the movie any better.

IT is sort of reminicsient of another book adapted into film - American Psycho. Certainly this is an altogether different film, but the idea of the surreal quality to it and the fact that questions are unanswered throughout both the book and the film make them somewhat similar.

I think that Kristen Dunst really has a great career ahead of her as a serious actress, to think that was the same little girl from "Interview with a Vampire"..she has come a long way in the roles she plays, and she doesn't always play the same character, which must be hard considering her age. She was brilliant as the sex-starved sister, Lux Lisbon.

The story is about sisters that are very close and being raised very strictly by Kathleen Turner, looking like she really got into the character, and James Woods. What a change for both of them! They seemed to have been typecast for a long time but with these two roles, they have really broken through as actors. When the youngest sister commits suicide is when the film really starts to get seriously disturbing, yet I was still absorbed. Absorped by the acting, the music, the times, and the story itself. It is narrated by Giovanni Ribisi, who is portrayed in the film as one of the four younger boys who become obsessed with the Lisbon sisters and their lives, or nonexistent lives. I think the parents have a lot to do with what takes place in this film. This is hardly the feel good film of 2000, but it was very interesting and entertaining, if you have a broad mind. This is a movie that you will think about for a long time after watching it.

Rating:
Summary: 70s Gothic yet utterly tender... you won't forget it
Review: 'The Virgin Suicides' is one of the most beautiful and underrated films of the past year.

It is most of all a tragic drama, punctuated by a great soundtrack and a just-right reproduction from the mid '70s, and featuring outstanding performances by its mainly young and then-little-known cast, filled with fresh faces. These come from Kirsten Dunst (as doomed and lovely Lux Lisbon), estremely good James Woods, and in a look-again performance, an unbelievably deglamorized Kathleen Turner. Oters that deserve mention are Noah Shebib (as Parkie Denton), Hayden Chritensen (whom will soon be seen in Episode II) and Hanna Hall as Cecilia Lisbon, the opener of the way.

Another remarkable aspect of the film is that it is the directorial debut by Sofia Coppola, reviled by many for her less-than-stellar performance in Godfather III. It is amazing the rapport of sensitivity with this material established by her as a director with many ideas and visions.

Like its source, the acclaimed novel by Jeffrey Eugenides, the story focuses on the lives and eventual deaths of the legendary five Lisbon sisters (Mary, Therese, Bonaventure -- aka "Bonnie"- Cecilia and Lux) growing up in an elegant, tree-lined upper-class suburban enclave near Detroit, circa 1975. They are fabulously beautiful, yet oddly repressed by their well-meaning but stifling parents.

In more ways than one, the Lisbon girls become a some sort of single entity, and with the spectacular suicide of the youngest sibling, they take a step in a strange direction that will transform them into history for a group of boys in the neighborhood, who, in their adult years, keep their obsession alive.

In a more mundane aspect, we have the seeds of tragedy sown in a most commonplace way, and yet it is disturbing for it has happened to many of us before. Lux, the most beautiful and free-spirited of the sisters, attracts the most popular jock from their private school, Trip Fontaine (a lukewarm Josh Hartnett), who has all the wrong reasons to "woo" her, pulling the touching stunt (but nevertheless, a stunt) of having his chums as support to take Lux & Co. to the Homecoming Dance.

The party (which provides a nostalgia look as the Carrie prom gone ok), is in a way the catalyst for the tragedy that'll ensue.

There are many reasons to watch again this film; Sofia Coppola's assured touch on human relations and the reaction upon the screen; it also features Kirsten Dunst's best performance to date, Kathleen Turner's turn as a character actor, and the superb recreation of "Stepford Country".

Definitely one of the year's best, a top-drawer recommendation.

Rating:
Summary: A film that captures the surrealistic world of a virgin
Review: I will try to beat the psychologer the poet and philosopher here...I will why not. I am a little bit of all... The film started with a theme I have heard long before but could not remember where and when. The theme was from the band Air and the song was "Playground love". It captured exactly the spirit of the surrealistic atmosphere the director(female, it couldnt be any different) wanted to pass.

I will not do as all the previous reviewers did take each personality but examine all personalities as a whole wherever I can.

A carefull observer might see that the camera are the "ghosts" of these five girls observing how people described them. The boys that narrated their story obsessed by their presense are just like Greek poets inspired by their muses.

Surrealism(the archi world as a clumsy reviewer described) is exactly how a teenager sees life. Abstract, vague, magic, mystical. Faces combined with songs, flowers, magical places where only the mind can go is exactly what a teenager girl can see especially when the social surrownding suppress her feelings towards the opposite sex. Leeding some time in depression and some time to suicide as these virgins commit.

The bigger of the girls has tasted love with the wrong person leading her in maniac behaviour.

I dont know about the book but we did not see in the film how the two parents met and what was their teen behaviour. How did they end up so strict especially the mother, why she did not want her daughters to feel this primitive feeling called sexual attraction. She tried as a last resort to ground her daughters so as not to feel this feeling leading them to suicide...its her fault unfortunately for not passing the right messages to her children.

The film was so well directed that you could almost feel the presense of these five girls watching you watching them...

Rating:
Summary: Pretentious trash
Review: One of the most pretentious, artsy-fartsy films I've seen in the past ten years, this film was just awful. It doesn't work as a statement about anything, it doesn't work as entertainment, it doesn't even work as mood (e.g. a 90-minute music video).

To put it plainly, it just didn't work for me. I say "for me" because given most of the other reviews here, I'm likely to be roundly lambasted for my opinion about this film. Please remember that it's just an opinion, and yours is equally as valid.

Having said that, I can't tell you how much I disliked this film. Absolutely, utterly pretentious, nose-in-the-air egotistical sickening (and sick) nonsense. And I was a (suburban) teenager in the 1970's... trust me, it wasn't even a good portrayal of 70's teenage suburbia. Phoney, phoney, phoney! Stick to acting, Sofia!