Film Review: The Virgin Suicides (1999)
Hollywood promoted the idea of United States as a place where everyone can achieve success with sufficient levels of hard work and talent. In Hollywood itself, another, sometimes more important, part of the formula is having influential parents. Many great careers were started through nepotism and one of the more infamous examples was The Godfather Part III, 1990 film considered to be disappointing failure due to famous director Francis Ford Coppola casting his daughter Sofia in the major role clearly below her acting abilities. She, however, more than atoned for that fiasco by switching to the directing career and series of very personal films that would make her respected film maker in her own right. First step in that direction was her 1999 feature debut, period drama The Virgin Suicides.
The film is based on the eponymous 1993 novel by James Eugenides. Plot, told through flashbacks by men in their forties who remember their teenage years, is set in 1975 and takes place in suburb of Grosse Pointe, Michigan. The most talked about family in neighbourhood are Lisbons – math teacher Mr. Lisbon (played by James Woods), his wife (played by Kathleen Turner) and their five teenage daughters, all blonde and beautiful. They arouse natural interest among local boys, but their strict Catholic parents are overprotective and vary of allowing them contact with the outside world. Things become more complicated when Cecilia (played by Hanna Hall), the youngest of sisters, commits suicide. Psychotherapist Dr. Horniker (played by Danny DeVito) convinces grieving parents that the family could deal with the trauma by allowing surviving sisters to have at least some relations with boys from their high school. This is opportunity used by Lux (played by Kirsten Dunst), the most rebellious of all sisters, who start passionate relationship and has sex with popular and attractive high school student Trip Fontaine (played by Josh Hartnett). Because she has breeched the curfew, she and the rest of the sisters are punished by being imprisoned in their home. The local boys decide to help them escape, unaware that they would, instead, becomes witnesses to unimaginable tragedy.
Despite being produced by Coppola Senior and having some big names in front of camera, The Virgin Suicides is one of those low budget quirky semi-independent films that tend to win festival awards and critics go gaga about. Cannes Film Festival was, unsurprisingly, more than proper venue for its premiere, although the film failed to win any big award. Most of the reviews were, however, favourable and that verdict is more than justified. Sofia Coppola has directed her first feature well, establishing good pace and mixing tragedy, black humour, bizarre coming-of-age story and a lot of nostalgia towards 1970s. Coppola has shown great talent for finding proper cast, which included Kirsten Dunst in one of her more serious roles, as well as James Woods as well-meaning but emasculated father and Kathleen Turner as overprotective mother. Coppola has also found very good soundtrack by French electronic music duo Air, whose theme song “Playground Love” represents one of the most haunting pieces of film music at the end of 20th Century. Great work on establishing atmosphere and the plot built around unresolved mystery is at times compromised with too much coldness and impression that Coppola nor characters she depicts haven’t been sufficiently invested into the story. Feminists among today’s audience might have issues with Lisbon sisters being depicted not as real women but as ideal visions distorted in memory by passage of time. However, The Virgin Suicides is nevertheless a very good film and definitely one of the better instances of someone starting directing career.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
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