Virgin Suicides, The (1999)

reviewed by
Akiva Gottlieb


The Virgin Suicides
not rated
97 minutes
Paramount Classics
starring James Woods, Kathleen Turner, Kirsten Dunst,
Josh Hartnett, Hanna Hall, Chelse Swain, A.J. Cook,
Leslie Hayman, Danny DeVito
based on the novel by Jeffrey Eugenides
written and directed by Sofia Coppola

A Review by Akiva Gottlieb When Francis Ford Coppola entered the movie business, he should have anticipated that his entire family would also leave their own mark. Sofia Coppola is his daughter, Talia Shire is his sister, and Nicolas Cage is his nephew. Cage married Patricia Arquette, Sofia Coppola married Spike (`Being John Malkovich') Jonze, and Talia Shire wed Jack Schwartzman, a film producer. The Schwartzmans had two children, Jason, who starred in 1998's `Rushmore', and Robert, whose feature film debut is in cousin Sofia's `The Virgin Suicides'.

If Sofia is trying hard to live up to her family's distinguished name, then she doesn't show it, because `Virgin Suicides' is a leisurely-paced, darkly comical and often dreamlike first feature. After her performance in `The Godfather Part III' received critical pans, she turned her ambitions to photography and fashion, and succeeded in both fields. Her unique visual flair lends a quiet subtlety to her portrait of suburban dismay.

`The Virgin Suicides', based on the novel by Jeffrey Eugenides, is the story of five unattainable teenage girls and the four boys who lust after them in 1970's Michigan. The five Lisbon sisters live in a quiet suburban house with their domineering mother (Kathleen Turner) and their passive father (James Woods). The mysterious girls live by strict rules, and the fact that they're not allowed to go out at night adds to the boys' obsession.

Things become more mysterious when the youngest Lisbon sister, Cecilia (Hanna Hall), attempts a suicide. `You've never been a thirteen-year-old girl,' she tells a psychologist (Danny DeVito). When she gets better, the parents let the girls throw the first and only party of their short lives. For the first time, the neighborhood boys are able to sneak a peek at the world of the Lisbon sisters.

But the party turns tragic as Cecilia tries suicide once again, and succeeds. An even thicker cloud of mystery shrouds the house Strangely, in the aftermath, all the Lisbons act as if the suicide had never occurred,

It is at this point that school hunk Trip Fontaine (Josh Hartnett) meets the dreamily gorgeous Lux Lisbon (Kirsten Dunst). Against all odds, he is able to persuade Mr. Lisbon to allow him to take her to the homecoming dance. He is the first and only boy to ever get close to one of the sisters. But the events that occur at the dance lead Mr. And Mrs. Lisbon to remove the girls from school and leave them locked up in the house 24 hours a day. This builds up to a climax that will be the most talked about aspect of the film.

Sofia Coppola has succeeded in painting a vivid portrait of adolescent obsession that feels a lot like a dream. Like all dreams, not everything is clear at first, and everything is open to interpretation. Coppola's film is a mystery with an open ending, like waking up from a nightmare because you can't dream your own death.

There's so much subtlety here, that it makes me wonder why the filmmakers provided voice-over narration (by Giovanni Ribisi) to tell the emotions of the characters in almost every scene. It's an overused tactic that's used to death in this film. Coppola's pictures speak louder than words, and the film would have been even better without the running commentary.

James Woods and Kathleen Turner give nice, restrained performances as the parents, but it is the beautiful Kirsten Dunst (`Dick', `Interview With The Vampire') who steals the show. We never learn very much about the Lisbon sisters, but Dunst makes Lux the one the audience is still thinking about when the film is over.

Sofia Coppola's absorbing debut film proves once again that the only good films about teenagers are from the art-house. With its delicate balance of fantasy and reality, a screen full of beautiful imagery, and a haunting musical score by Air that I ended up purchasing, `The Virgin Suicides' is one of the first pleasant surprises to emerge from Sundance 2000.

B
Akiva Gottlieb
Critical66@yahoo.com
http://pictureshow.8m.com 

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