Rating: 
Summary: A MUST SEE AND A MUST HAVE
Review: Have you ever watched a movie that stayed with you for days after? This movie was so underrated I almost past on it, but I was capitivated by it's "simple" beauty. A movie with little dialog having to rely on the actors moment and scenery to convey feelings. I think Sophia Coppola did a wonderful job directing this movie, and allowing the audience to think for themselves. I say it is a must buy because you will want to watch it over and over again.
Rating: 
Summary: Please Quit Comparing this Movie to Picnic at Hanging Rock
Review: This movie is NO "Picnic at Hanging Rock." That film was brilliant when I first saw it as a child and it still is and I still am left wondering and thinking about that movie. Once the Virgin Suicides was over, I was done with it completely. All in all, it was kind of boring. The only interesting part was when the girls killed themselves and the country club people had the asphixiation party. The acting was mediocre and the movie focused more on cinematography than anything else. To me, this film is GenX camp and if you like that, then by all means watch this movie. My suggestion is to go watch Picnic if you really want to see a wierd, artsy movie about mysterious girls. Mysterious does not describe Kirsten Dunst. And Sofia's directing proves genius does not run in the family. Sure Daddy can pay for you to direct a movie, but he can't make it a good movie. Reading everyone on here raving about this film is about as irritating as reading everyone raving about Titanic. Get a life.
Rating:
Summary: STYLISH BUT SOULLESS
Review: The fascination of the closeness of vivacious and attractive sisters is partly what draws people to Little Women and is at the center of The Virgin Suicides. Unfortunately, The Virgin Suicides does not have the sparks of Little Women. The narrator (Giovanni Risbisi) of the Virgin Suicides talks in a monotone and sounds bored, the boys in the film look bored and robotic (especially in their first and last scenes in front of the Lisbon household), and half the time the Lisbon sisters look bored. Is it any wonder that I was bored too?The Lisbon sisters are the heart of the film, and it is crucial that there be something mysterious, seductive, and magical about them to explain why the neighborhood boys are infatuated with them and why we should find them interesting too. The problem that this movie cannot overcome is that rather than seeing the girls through the eyes of the boys (as could be done in a novel), where the Lisbon sisters would be the summit of existence, we instead see them through our own eyes. Looked at that way, they're just girls. We cannot identify with the boys and their obsession. The whole thing just seems childish. Neither the girls nor the boys are given much characterization, so the story does not draw us in and elicits no emotion despite dealing with what should be a shocking and poignant subject, teenage suicide. (Even the author of The Virgin Suicides admits in the DVD behind-the-scenes-documentary that the novel is weak on characterization.) Although James Woods and Kathleen Turner do the best they can do with what they are given, they are playing stock characters: the nerdy mathematics teacher (James Woods) and the repressed, steely mother (Kathleen Turner). In fact, all of the adults come across as dolts, including Danny DeVito in a cameo as a psychiatrist. Josh Hartnett is surprisingly good as the studly, self-centered high school jock. His insertion into the movie midway through helps to light some sparks, but his character is dispatched as abruptly as it was introduced. Sofia Coppola does a fine job creating a dreamy mood and adds some stylish visual touches to the film, but that cannot compensate for an uninteresting screenplay, which she wrote. In the end, the "mystery" of why these girls killed themselves proves to be of little interest, and the boys' infatuation with the girls 25 years after they committed suicide -- the men talk about the girls even to this day and try to make sense of it all! -- comes across as cases of arrested development. Please, guys, get a life! The DVD extra is a behind-the-scenes documentary made by Sofia Coppola's mother. It should be no surprise to learn that most of the documentary is composed of effusive praise for the incredible talent and hard work of the documentarian's daughter. The main actors are slighted in the documentary, and Sofia's cousin who has a bit role in the movie gets as much attention as Kathleen Turner, who plays a key supporting role.
Rating: 
Summary: Good movie, but lacks in features for the price...
Review: The movie is good. The soundtrack is one of the most thought-out soundtracks since "Boogie Nights". Music is not used here to sell a soundtrack album full of pop songs. So, if you have a home theater you are treated to an excellent prom night. The image is good. The extras are lacking. Maybe it is an evil influence by Spkie Jonze. This is one area where more input from her father would have helped. Rent it, enjoy it, remember it, but don't buy it.
Rating:
Summary: Wow! Really transports you back in time
Review: This film just sucks you in and for me I was totally returned to the late 70's early 80's. The music, clothing, neighborhoods, attitudes... just everything. And any film that can be satisfying while still leaving many questions unanswered has really done a phenomenal job. And this is definitely one of those rare films. We are granted privilege to know just enough about all of the characters without overanalyzing or emphasizing any of them or their particular traits. And I don't care who you are you'll be able to identify with one of the kids that's so well portrayed either in whole or in some significant part. The film just looks at the what and much less the why in respect to life during those oh so weird high-school years. It's hard to describe this one but it's just exceptionally good!
Rating:
Summary: Sets just the right tone
Review: I cannot commend Sophia Coppella enough for The Virgin Suicides. This film showcases a young director with amazing scope and ability, and it's a brave effort. All too often are we subjected to first directors' visions that look like music clips. Flashy with no substance, and unneccesarily visual. The virgin Suicides is an extroadinarily visual piece of work, beautifully shot and realised, but there is nothing unneccessary or out of place. Coupled with the brilliant soundtrack by air, the beautiful performances by the young cast and the severley underrated performances by Kathleen Turner and James Wood, the film is deceptively simple and resonating. It really is a stunning debut and I cannot wait to see Sophia Coppola grow as the true artist she is.
Rating:
Summary: Allegorical film is challenging fare
Review: Sophia Coppola, who's deficiencies as an actress marred The Godfather III, made the right decision when she decided her real talents lay behind the camera. She became a director like her father, Francis Ford Coppola. Her first directorial effort, The Virgin Suicides, is not a highly commercial effort. Simply consider its title. It is, however, a good film and a very promising debut. I think we will hear a lot more from Ms. Coppola. I have, as usual, written something about the plot, but it may not tell you much. The Virgin Suicides is perhaps best described as an allegory. What it appears to be about is not necessarily what it is really about. Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon [James Woods and Kathleen Turner] have five beautiful teenage daughters. They live in an ordinary upper-middle class house in a pristine upper-middle class neighborhood, the kind where debutantes and coming out parties abound. The Lisbon family is torn apart are when the youngest girl attempts suicide, then shattered when her second attempt succeeds. Meanwhile, the local boys are both enamored with and in awe of the Lisbon girls, who represent the sort of ideal that only the innocence of youth can conjure up. The boys are as confused and distraught by the event as anyone else, but their perceptions of the tragedy and its meaning are necessarily quite different from the adults. The straight-laced Lisbons decide to withdraw the other girls from school, but at the urging of a psychiatrist, allow the girls to invite the boys to a party. It is the one and only the girls will ever be allowed to give. The time is the 1970s, and I think this is important to know because that is when the sexual revolution really took hold in the middle class. Many parents and their children became separated by a kind of invisible wall. The values had shifted too rapidly between one generation and the next. The love didn't necessarily die, but the lines of communication often went missing. This is not to say that The Virgin Suicides is about rebellion. It is about the loss of innocence. Because of what happens to them, the movie might seem to be all about the Lisbon girls. I think it is as much about the boys, from whose viewpoint the story is told. Ms. Coppola has elicited strong performances from her cast, many of which are very young. Kirsten Dunst and Josh Harnett are extraordinary as the oldest of the teenagers. We have come to expect the best from Dunst, who first amazed us as Claudia, the child vampire in Interview With the Vampire. It is wonderful to see her moving so easily into more adult roles. Harnett is a pleasant surprise. His previous work has been mainly in low-budget, crowd-pleasing horror movies, in which it is hard to discern if the actors have talent or not. The Virgin Suicides is based on a remarkable and sparse novel by Jeffrey Eugenidas. Ms. Coppola took on a daunting task for her first film. The book has minimal character development, but the young director was able to give some character insights without compromising the spirit of the book. This is not a movie for the easily distracted. Big mass market entertainments do all the work for the audience. Films like The Virgin Suicides do not, and, to me, this is part of what makes them so interesting. Rated R for strong thematic elements involving teens. [Note to the MPAA: You really should revise the rating system. What on earth does the phrase 'strong thematic elements involving teens' mean to the average parent?]
Rating: 
Summary: Decadent, artsy trash
Review: This is one of the most truly decadent movies I have ever seen. It attempts to stir refined, delicate emotions based on the deaths (suicides!) of children. Caligula would have loved it. It has been compared to Picnic at Hanging Rock, but in that interesting, flawed film, the girls simply disappear without a trace. Whatever happened to them, the reasonable viewer is unlikely to conjecture that they committed mass suicide. If the movie suggested responses of shock, horror, pity, or indeed any of the responses that people genuinely have to such tragedies (say, the Jim Jones Guyana tragedy), I could be more generous. Instead, it seems to reach for a kind of dreamy, wistful nostalgia. It is reasonably well made for what it is. In fact, it took a couple of days for the truly repellant aspects of the movie to become apparent to me. I think that it is disgusting and decadent. Even if intended as a metaphor, the choice of subject matter is appalling.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best movies based on a book
Review: I read The Virgin Suicides about 2 years ago and it was one of the best books I have ever read. I was very excited to hear that there was to be a movie made about that book. The movie, "The Virgin Suicides" is exceptional. It is cool because it follows the book to a T, and it is great to see the characters come to life on screen. The cast is perfect, and fits the images of the characters as you would imagine them (although it seems like Kathleen Turner is actually a little too attractive to play "Mrs. Lisbon"). The movie flows as quickly and as vividly as the book did, making you laugh and cry throughout.
"The Virgin Suicides" does have a sort of dark tone to it, but it is a beautifully written and beautifully adapted book and film about young teenagers coming of age in the heat of the 70's, who so very sorrowfully meet their demise in the prime of their awakening. I think it is as appealing to the baby-boomers as it is to the young adults of our time. I thought it was a very moving and beautiful film.
Rating:
Summary: Sophia Coppola's Directorial Debut
Review: The Virgin Suicides marks Sophia Coppola's directorial debut. Some may cringe at the thought since her acting debut in The Godfather Part III was roundly bashed. One cannot say the same about this movie though. Ms. Coppola does a fine job behind the camera. The problem with the film is not her directing, but the overall plot. The story revolves around the Lisbon family which is made up of five daughters. They seem to be a happy family, but they are shaken up by the suicide of one of the daughters. The film takes place in the late 70's, but is told in flashback style narrated by Giovanni Risbisi. His voice is that of one of four boys who are fascinated to the point of obsession with the Lisbon girls. After the one daughter's suicide, the girls' fanatical mother, played with fervor by Kathleen Turner, basically shuts the remaining daughters off from the world. This makes the girls all the more mysterious and attractive. Kirsten Dunst play Lux Lisbon, the most rebellious and sought after girl. Josh Harnett plays Trip Fontaine, the most popular boy in school who wins her affections. After the girls go to the homecoming dance, Trip and Lux have an encounter on the football field and Lux doesn't come home until the next morning. This prompts their mother to banish the girls to their room, not even aloud to be let out to go to school. They start trading messages over the phone and through morse code to the group of boys across the street. The movie ends in disturbing fashion. The plot takes on a powerful subject in suicide, but it dances around what drives one to take their own life. Ms. Coppola does an excellent job of setting the mood in the film and her use of music is right on. The film is a decent movie and one that shows alot of promise.
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