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The Virgin Suicides on DVD (1999)

The Virgin Suicides cover art
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Average rating: (68%)
1115618152047
3.0
 
Starring: Kathleen Turner | James Woods | Kirsten Dunst | Danny De Vito | Leslie Hayman | Hanna R. Hall | Chelse Swain | Josh Hartnett | Scott Glenn | Michael Pare | A.J. Cook | Jonathan Tucker | Michelle Duquet | Anthony DeSimone
Director: Sofia Coppola
Studio: PATHE DISTRIBUTION
Run time: 93 mins
Certificate: 15
User collections: My Favourites | Celluloid Love | My Personal Favourites | 10 Perfect Films (In my opinion!) | Films I could watch forever | My Five Star Movies | Eclectic
Genres: Drama
Languages: English
Hearing-impaired: English
Subtitles: None
Released: 20/11/2000

Brief synopsis of The Virgin Suicides

Based on the 1993 novel by Jeffrey Eugenides, THE VIRGIN SUICIDES tells the dreamlike tale of the Lisbons, a family living in a sheltered 1970s suburbia. When Cecilia (Hannah Hall), the youngest of the five teenage Lisbon daughters, inexplicably commits suicide, the rest of the family--Mr. Lisbon (James Woods), an awkward high school math teacher; Mrs. Lisbon (Kathleen Turner), a stern, humorless housewife; and the four remaining sisters: Lux (Kirsten Dunst), Bonnie (Chelse Swain), Mary (A.J. Cook), and Therese (Leslie Hayman)--recedes into a morbid cloud of repression and denial. As the girls are forced to retreat from everyday life by their conservative mother, they become the subject of fascination for a group of neighborhood boys, who narrate the story and hope to rescue the girls from their listless confinement.
The first feature by director-screenwriter Sofia Coppola (Francis Ford Coppola's daughter), THE VIRGIN SUICIDES is a mesmerizingly atmospheric film that perfectly captures both the moody tone of the book and the light-saturated feel of the 1970s. Dunst gives a standout performance as the promiscuous Lux, who becomes the sole obsession of high school ladies' man Trip Fontaine (Josh Hartnett). The movie also includes cameos by Danny DeVito and Scott Glenn. In addition to songs by Heart and Todd Rundgren, the film features an evocative score by the French duo Air.

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Critics Reviews

Rating of 4 stars out of 5 Radio Times

Critics cried “nepotism!” when Francis Ford Coppola cast his daughter Sofia in The Godfather Part III and savaged her performance. Sofia opted out of the limelight, went to college and bounced back with this directorial debut that announced the arrival of a new talent behind the camera. Based on the 1970s-set Jeffrey Eugenides novel about five sisters in an affluent Michigan suburb who obsess the local adolescent males and eventually kill themselves, Coppola (who also wrote the screenplay) captures a melancholic truth about the awkwardness of blooming adolescent sexuality without jeopardising an otherworldly, backlit lyricism that stays with the viewer long after the story ends. Kirsten Dunst, as the eldest Lisbon sister, and Josh Harnett, as the cocky local stud who beds her, are exceptional, as is the music by French duo Air. But the secret of the film lies in the quiet symbolism (trees marked for felling due to Dutch Elm disease) and the evocative, sun-bleached splendour.

Rating of 1 stars out of 4 Halliwell's Film Guide

A tale of suburban America in the 70s that approaches its subject with sympathy and subtlety, but leaves the deaths as a puzzle that it does not attempt to explain.

New York Times

"...The movie's best moments have an inspired feeling of playfulness and freedom matched by Ms. Dunst's smart, beguiling performance as Lux Lisbon..."

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Members Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 4 starsSensitive portrayal of teen angst

Alfod Alfod from Walsall , 24/08/2004

Sofia Coppola's full-length feature debut, I must be one of many fans of Lost in Translation curious about what Coppola had done previously.

It was very different to what I was expecting (preconceptions picked up from seeing the cover to the Air Soundtrack and hearing it compared to the seminal Picnic at Hanging Rock).

Similar in tone to The Ice Storm (and also set in the Seventies) it examines the sexual liberation of the times brought about by the invention of the pill.

The five Lisbon sisters live under a regime of stifling over-protection from their Catholic mother (an impressive Kathleen Turner) and borderline bonkers Maths teacher dad (James Woods) and their story is fascinatingly told from the point of view of a gang of neighbourhood boys, whose pubescent obsession with the sisters leads them to try and piece together the reasons why the short lives of the sisters ended in suicide.

Teen angst is rarely as sensitively portrayed and Kirsten Dunst once again demonstrates her deserved membership of the vanguard of next generation talent. As the lustful college jock Trip Fontaine, Josh Harnett flexes his burgeoning talent adequately but the glory has to go to Dunst and Coppola.

  17 out of 18 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 4 starsDying to see it again

Gorfette85 from Cheshire , 15/07/2005

I had first read the book, and had been looking forward to the film immensly. It captures the essence of the book beautifully. All the girls show the desperation of their family, and it does not try to over emphasise the suicides. I would definatly recommmened it and would watch it again.

  16 out of 16 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 2 starsNot as cool as it would like to be

Rehan from London , 02/10/2004

Like so many hip American indie films, this is not quite as clever as its makers would like to think. It's full of rather tired clich?s, the worst being the 'disaffected' croaky voiceover ['don't tell us, show us' should, but isn't, the rule of thumb].

Some good acting, excellent set design, but less than the sum of its parts: surely it's a bad sign if the suicide of the main characters is a matter of complete indifference to the viewer?

  15 out of 20 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 4 starsAmazing

Marianthi from London , 05/02/2004

What a treat this film was. I read the book two years ago and I loved it and I was worried that the movie might take the magic out of this depressing and moving story. But it hasn't. It was beautiful, accurate, lovely. And despite its depressing subject, it's got a perfect balance of humour and sweetness.

Only thing is, the DVD has no extras whatsoever. Just the theatre trailer! And for this reason, I give this film 4 stars.

  10 out of 11 people found this review helpful
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* * * This review contains spoilers * * *

Rated - 4 starsCoppola goodness...

A customer from Leeds , 19/08/2008

Having read the book, I adored the film (which doesn't usually happen). I am a huge fan of Coppola's lazy, idyllic and precious shooting style. Every scene looks immaculate.

Plot wise the deaths of the girls is not sensationalised and the boys narration and voyeristic nature makes it a great story to translate.

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