The Virgin Suicides - Moviebodega





Sofia Coppola

Sofia Coppola
Based on the novel by Jeffrey Eugenides

R

Kirsten Dunst (Lux Lisbon), James Woods (Mr. Lisbon), Kathleen Turner (Mrs. Lisbon), Josh Hartnett (Trip Fontaine), Hanna Hall (Cecilia Lisbon), Chelse Swain (Bonnie Lisbon), A.J. Cook (Mary Lisbon), Leslie Hayman (Therese Lisbon), Danny DeVito (Dr. Hornicker), Scott Glenn (Father Moody), Giovanni Ribisi (Narrator)

If AMERICAN BEAUTY was the 1999's best exploration of middle-class malaise, then its glorious post-millennial counterpart is the devastating, beautiful, and iridescent THE VIRGIN SUICIDES. A gratifying and awe-inspiring debut by Sofia Coppola, her exquisite first film proves that she is her father's daughter in more than name.

Burnished with the golden veneer that often accompanies memories of the 1970's, THE VIRGIN SUICIDES is alternately a memory poem, a domestic drama, a surreal mystery, and a morality tale. Its incredibly smart juxtaposition of images and narrative, verging from the mundane to the metaphysical, creates multiple levels of meaning and nuance. It's a satisfying, fulfilling work, with more to digest that simple story and characters.

Based on the novel by Jeffrey Eugenides, the plot concerns the five Lisbon Sisters -- Lux (Kirsten Dunst), Cecilia (Hanna Hall), Bonnie (Chelse Swain), Mary (A.J. Cook), and Therese (Leslie Hayman) -- the most beautiful girls in the local high school. Seen through the eyes of the young men who adore them from afar (actually, across the street), the girls are alluring, magical, unexplainable, and mysterious. Their religiously strict mother (played with gruff mastery by Kathleen Turner) keeps the girls on a tight leash; they aren't allowed to socialize very much, and at school they mostly keep to themselves. They are, in short, Desire Incarnate: the Impossible Dream, the Holy Grail, and the Girl From Ipanema all rolled into one.

But all is not perfect in the Lisbon household. When one of the sisters commits suicide, the rest desperately try to cope with the loss, and with their increasingly strict mother and father (James Woods as an ineffectual bore). The growing bodies and minds of these young women, it seems, cannot stay inside the rigid perameters of their home life. The most handsome boy in school, Trip Fontaine (Josh Hartnett), develops a crush on Lux (Dunst), and their timid, tumultuous romance serves as the center of the film. As it proceeds, though, it becomes clear that what is important in THE VIRGIN SUICIDES is the gaps, the holes in the story that are left to the imagination -- a darkened window, an anonymous note, a musical phone call exchange. Like the senior Coppola, Sofia distinguishes herself as a filmmaker that thinks outside of the frame as much as inside it.

The Lisbon sisters are icons as much as characters -- their serene, gently swaying sexuality belies deeper sighs of understanding. Each girl seems to have oceans of regret and longing just behind her eyes, a knowingness well beyond their years. Their greatest crime is to think of themselves first, but the melancholy that fills the silences implies that choices the girls make now will have little effect later. Perhaps the greatest surprise of THE VIRGIN SUICIDES is its humor...many scenes are laugh-out-loud funny, and the teetering balance between laughs and seriousness is one of the film's greatest joys.

Coppola's cast and design teams are flawless. Dunst emerges from supporting roles (INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE) and throwaway leads (DICK) to full starlet status. Alongside Christina Ricci, she is perhaps Hollywood's best young actress. Hartnett continues to build a solid resume. Woods puts in another solid, on-target performance, but it is Turner, who both terrifies and saddens as Mrs. Lisbon, who gives the film's most textured performance. Seeming as if she will shatter at any moment, Turner walks a fine line between passionate love for one's children and verbal, psychological violence. It shows that the actress, who became a star almost twenty years ago in ROMANCING THE STONE and THE WAR OF THE ROSES, deserves a comeback.

The 1970's are immaculately reproduced by the design departments -- the art direction, costuming, and cinematography are award-worthy. Likewise, the score by ambient/electronica group Air is one of the most interesting and varied works in memory, experimenting with period styles while never straying out of the era's range.

THE VIRGIN SUICIDES is one of the most auspicious debuts ever. Like Sam Mendes and Spike Jonze last year, Sofia Coppola is an altogether different visionary, one who can observe and recycle our recent past from the inside, finding new meaning in every moment. She even wrote the script herself, just like her father! Luxuriate in the pleasure that is THE VIRGIN SUICIDES, and experience this exceptional new talent for yourself.

Gabriel Shanks - moviebodega@mindspring.com

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