Movie review : The Virgin Suicides (1999)

[hippie_chick]

Having nothing on last night that caught my fancy I put in my copy of The Virgin Suicides.

I've seen this film quite a few times now. And I get engrossed every single time. No, I've not yet read the book, by Jeffrey Eugenides. And I know that as movie adaptations go, there was probably some lost in translation (LOL that wasn't an intended pun on Sofia... *wink*) between book and movie.

But anyway I love the movie. It's surreal. Dreamy. Sad. Funny in parts. Sofia Coppola does an apt job at directing her first film. There are flaws but it's still a fine piece.

The title pretty much tells you what happens. Here's the basic plot outline.

The story centers around the five beautiful Lisbon sisters, growing up in 1970s suburban Michigan and what happens over the course of one summer. The sisters are Therese, 17, Mary, 16, Lux, 15, Bonnie, 14, and Cecilia, 13. Their father teaches math at the local high school and their mother is a home maker.

We open with the attempted suicide of the youngest sister, Cecilia. She's seen in the bath tub having slashed her wrists. It is never made clear what drove this young girl to do this, other than her uttering the line "Obviously, doctor, you've never been a thirteen year old girl." to her therapist after he says to her "What are you doing here, honey? You're not even old enough to know how bad life gets."

This is when we are introduced to the other girls, their parents, and the five neighborhood boys who would from then onward be haunted by them. The story is told in the viewpoint of voiceover by Giovanni Ribisi who lends just the right nuance, speaking as the collective "voice" of the boys and their memories. To be sure, though, it's a blend of fact and fantasy on the boys' memory and telling.

At the urging of the doctor, the girls throw their first and only party. That night, during the party, Cecilia excuses herself, goes upstairs, and throws herself out her second story window onto the spikes of the wrought iron fence below in the yard, successfully ending her young life. Cecilia will flit in and out of the story like a sad, beautiful ghost from here on out.

It's after the death of Cecilia that things start to change.
Lux attends the homecoming dance with class hottie Trip Fontaine. Trip convinces Mr. Lisbon to allow him to take Lux to the dance, with the proviso that he get dates for the other three girls. Mrs. Lisbon becomes even more protective of the girls, crazily so, pulling them out of school after Lux misses curfew... really misses it, like, she comes home the next morning.

She puts the girls on "maximum security isolation", never letting them leave the house. And there's Mr. Lisbon, who starts acting more eccentrically and is ultimately forced to resign his teaching position. The boys acquire Cecilia's diary (ultimately more of their belongings as well) and strive to understand the girls, who become some romantic ethereal presence to them.

My favorite section of the film is when the girls, languishing in the house, exchange phone "messages" with the boys, playing sections of pop songs to each other.

This I believe is when the boys set about "rescuing" them. They set a date to come and get them, whisk them away. By the time they get to the house and are speaking to Lux, Therese is already dead, having stuffed herself with sleeping pills. We're shown, as the boys go down stairs to collect the girls' trunk that the other sisters would follow.

The acts of the girls' parents confuses me. Did Mrs. Lisbon think that by keeping the girls locked away that she'd "save" them from the same fate that befell Cecilia? Or was she frightened of their burgeoning womanhood? Mr. Lisbon doesn't really factor in much in my opinion. He seemed meek, submissive to his wife. Didn't say much. Because of the fact that it's told via the viewpoint of an observer relying on artifacts and hearsay as well as fantasy, we never really get to know the family much better. Lux is the most fleshed out character, who hung on to herself as long as she could.

You never do have those biggest questions answered. Why? Why do these girls ultimately take their own lives? Could something or someone have saved them? As all beautiful flowers do, they simply fade away.

I recommend the music score, by Air. It's heavy, lonely and atmospheric. I adore "Playground Love".

Download "Playground Love" here.

The soundtrack has some great pieces on it too, evoking the emotions felt in the scenes they were featured as part of. "Alone Again (Naturally)", "Magic Man", "Hello It's Me"... perfectly chosen and as well a great little snapshot of some fine 70s pop music.

Speaking of Sofia Coppola, do you believe I still haven't gone to see "Marie Antoinette"?

Comments

[hippiedork.livejournal.com]

I really like the movie too - it reminds me of summertime as a teenager (the dreaminess of summer), if that makes any sense.