Kirsten Dunst

Josh Hartnett

James Woods

Kathleen Turner

Michael Paré

A. J. Cook

Hanna Hall

Leslie Hayman

Chelse Swain

Giovanni Ribisi

Anthony DeSimone

Lee Kagan

Robert Schwartzman

FourTee

Jonathan Tucker

Scott Glenn

Danny DeVito

Hayden Christensen

Joe Roncetti

Chris Hale

Joe Dinicol

Suki Kaiser

Dawn Greenhalgh

Allen Stewart-Coates

Sherry Miller

Jonathan Whittaker

Michèle Duquet

Murray McRae

Roberta Hanley

Paul Sybersma

Susan Sybersma

Peter Snider

Gary Brennan

Charles Boyland

Dustin Ladd

Kristin Fairlie

Melody Johnson

Sheyla Molho

Ashley Ainsworth

Courtney Hawkrigg

François Klanfer

Mackenzie Lawrenz

Tim Hall

Amos Crawley

Andrew Gillies

Mairlyn Smith

Sally Cahill

Tracey Ferencz

Scot Denton

Catherine Swing

Timothy Adams

Michael Michaelessi

Sarah Minhas

Megan Kennedy

Sandi Stahlbrand

Neil Girvan

Jaya Karsemeyer

Leah Straatsma

Mark Polley

Kirk Gonnsen

Marianne Moroney

Anne Wessels

Derek Boyes

John Buchan

Conor Dean Smith

Mandy Lee Jones

Thomas Mars

Sofia Coppola

Jeffrey Eugenides

Francis Ford Coppola

Julie Costanzo

Dan Halsted

Chris Hanley

Edward Lachman

Melissa Kent

James Lyons

Jasna Stefanovic

Jon P. Goulding

Megan Less

Nancy Steiner

Suzanne Colvin-Goulding

Jordan Gertner

Gary Marcus

Fred Roos

Howard Meltzer

Lisa Brown

Gail 'Freddie' Godden

Kathleen Graham

Roz Music

Suzanne Savage

Brian Reitzell

Linda Phillips-Palo

Robert McGee

Marc Meisels

Jeff Silver

Geoff McFetridge

Nicolas Godin

Jean-Benoît Dunckel

Christopher Binney

Roman Alexander Buchok

Roman Coppola

Tom Quinn

Dan Belley

Jordan Craig

John LaForet

Doug Andham

Felipe Borrero

Keith Burhans

Sean Keegan

Sanaa Kelley

Laura Laird

Jesse Pomeroy

Robert Serda

Gretchen Thoma

Galen Walker

Robert Jason

Franco Tata

Spike Jonze

Fred Fuchs

Willi Bär

Richard Beggs

Kent Sparling

Ethan Derner

Henry Embry

Pete Horner

Drama

Romance

The Virgin Suicides

American Zoetrope

Muse Productions

Eternity Pictures

United States of America

A very different movie, enjoyable and engrossing but at the end of it you are left wondering what the point was. Is there a moral here? A life lesson? Or is the movie just telling a quirky story? I'm still not sure. This movie is well acted and is never boring, but it is puzzling.

***Artistic, profound, amusing, tragic, haunting coming-of-age in the 70s***

A 13 year-old girl from a Catholic family in a Detroit suburb commits suicide during the late 70s and its effects are shown over the course of the next year in the lives of her four sisters (e.g. Kirsten Dunst), her parents (James Woods & Kathleen Turner) and the boys of the community. Josh Hartnett is on hand as the school stud who’s interested in Lux (Dunst).

"The Virgin Suicides" (1999) was Sofia Coppola’s debut film based on the book by Jeffrey Eugenides; she would go on to great success with “Lost in Translation” (2003) and the underrated “Marie Antoinette” (2006). To be expected, Sofia’s style is similar to her father, as well as Peter Weir, but maybe more focused on feminine themes. The tone of the movie is artsy and deep, but not without a sense of humor. It’s haunting, mysterious, beautiful and impenetrable, reminiscent of Weir’s “Picnic at Hanging Rock” (1975). There’s also a great 70’s soundtrack featuring well-placed songs by The Hollies, Heart, Styx, Todd Rundgren and 10cc.

The subtext on parental legalism brings to mind “Footloose” (1984), but it’s clear that the blame can’t be placed solely at the feet of the parents, who are certainly overprotective but also clearly loving to a degree. Cecilia’s rash actions are the catalyst and the domino effect comes into play coupled with the oppression of stifling legalism and perhaps passive revenge. At the end of the day, though, it comes down to just a stupid decision by teenagers. Yet the movie’s about way more than suicide and its causes. It’s about coming-of-age, seeking identity & a voice, coming-of-death and the haunting reflections of those that remain.

The film runs 1 hour, 37 minutes and was shot in Toronto.

GRADE: A-/B+

CinemaSerf

Set amidst 1970s Detroit suburbia, this follows the ultimately tragic lives of five sisters who live with their teacher father (James Woods) and rather possessive mother (Kathleen Turner). It's narrated by one of their neighbours, a youth whom - along with his friends - has a bit of a crush on the girls. Disaster strikes early on when "Cecilia" manages to impale herself on the garden fence and what now ensues follows the family's quirkily poignant and entertaining evolution from this event. Things eventually come to an head when the girls plead with their parents to be allowed to go to a school dance whereupon "Lux" (Kirsten Dunst) and her all-American boyfriend "Trip" (Josh Hartnett) do the deed! Arriving home late, and alone, this causes ructions within the family and drives the young girl off the rails with ghastly consequences. There's a lot of nuance here. The performances from Turner, Dunst and a rather under-stated one from an increasingly effective Woods all help build this to a conclusion that is sadly, in my view, all a bit rushed. The effects of the isolation and loneliness on the all-but-incarcerated girls is there for us to see, but not really to appreciate fully enough and I felt that a shame. There is also quite a potent aesthetic here - the visuals offer us a subtle reinforcement of stereotype, ageing, maturity, comedy and indifference and I could have done with some meat on the bones of the actual story, the film gets better after each viewing.