drama directed
by : Sofia Coppola featuring
: Kirsten Dunst - James Woods - Kathleen Turner - Josh Hartnett - Hannah
Hall running
time : 1 hour 37 minutes
A dark comedy punctuated
by moments of drama, The Virgin Suicides explores the emotional underpinnings
of a family starting to come apart at the seams in 1970's Midwestern America.
The Lisbons seem like an ordinary enough family; Father (James Woods) teaches
math at a high school in Michigan, Mother (Kathleen Turner) has a strong
religious faith, and they have five teenage daughters, ranging from 13-year-old
Cecilia (Hannah Hall) to 17-year-old Therese (Leslie Hayman). However,
the Lisbon family's sense of normalcy is shattered when Cecilia falls into
a deep depression and attempts suicide. The family is shaken and Mother
and Father seek the advice of psychiatrist Dr. Hornicker (Danny DeVito),
who suggests the girls should be allowed to socialize more with boys. However,
boys soon become a serious problem for Cecilia's sister Lux (Kirsten Dunst).
Lux has attracted the eye of a high-school Romeo named Trip (Josh Hartnett),
who assures Father of his good intentions. But Cecilia finally makes good
on her decision to kill herself, throwing the Lisbons into a panic; and
after attending a school dance, Trip seduces and then abandons Lux. The
Lisbons pull their daughters out of school, as an emotionally frayed Mother
keeps close watch over them. Meanwhile, Lux continues to attract the attentions
of the local boys, and she responds with a series of clandestine sexual
episodes with random partners as often as she can sneak out of the house.
The debut feature from Sofia Coppola (whose father, Francis Ford Coppola,
co-produced this film), The Virgin Suicides also features supporting performances
from Scott Glenn and Giovanni Ribisi. The film was shown as part of the
Directors Fortnight series as the 1999 Cannes Film Festival.
The Virgin
Suicides paints an emotionally harrowing portrait of adolescence. Simultaneously
nostalgic and foreboding, Coppola finds just the right tone to deliver
a warning about the way girls grow up in society, while still having enough
grace to show us there may be hope.
All the
boys in town fantasize about the mysterious Lisbon daughters. After the
prom, on the football field, Trip finally sleeps with Lux, the most alluring
of all the Lisbon girls. He leaves her before morning, while she sleeps.
The adult Trip explains to viewers in a voiceover that he did not leave
to be cruel or mean. He left because after having created a fantasy out
of Lux, he did not have the strength to face the reality. The fact that,
after admitting this, the adult Trip goes back to his AA meeting should
not be lost.
The cinematography
and acting reinforce the theme of fantasy colliding with reality. Ed Lachman
utilizes a dreamy, nostalgic look which allows the tragedy of the film
to hit the audience even harder. Dunst gives a stunningly mature performance.
She manages to simultaneously play both the fantasy dream girl and the
pained reality that make up the conflicting aspects of Lux's personality.
Ribisinarrates
the film with a voice that is simultaneously resigned and filled with wonder.
It is the voice of maturity looking back on youth. He is a representation
of the adult voice of all the boys in the neighborhood who spent their
days fantasizing about Lux and her sisters. At the end of the film, he
tells the audience that they now realize they knew nothing at all about
the Lisbon girls. This understanding may be the first step.
