The Virgin Suicides: Movie Review

The Virgin Suicides

“Cecilia was the first to go,” the movie starts, followed by an ambulance, implying how serious her attempt was. When asks why she did it, she replies,”Obviously, Doctor, you’ve never been a 13-year-old girl”.

A drastic event about five daughters who commits suicide at Michigan in 1970’s is told by a collective narrator(s) that have a passion and love for the Lisbon girls. Their voice acts as a guideline as the film progresses and the information revealed came from their extensive research and intimate memories. Despite the complex storyline, Sofia Coppola handled a dramatic story, from the book of Jeffrey Eugenides with the same title, with such subtlety and had managed to produce an independent film filled with eerie and sad feeling yet memorable at the same time.

The boys playing music for the Lisbon Girls

Kirsten Durst, as the sexually aggressive Lux Lisbon, is the highlight in the film. Her role may not talk so much but her eyes and smiles shows the message as she flirts or plead for a request. Her brilliance, which somehow covers the presence of her sisters, illuminates throughout the film, from the start (licking a lollipop) until the end (unbuckling a belt).

The cinematography along with the film’s soundtrack blends well together. When Trip Fontaine, Lux Lisbon’s later partner, is introduced, we are faced with a rock and bouncy music with the historical account of Trip being the heart-throb of the campus. The last part, when the devoted narrator(s) had contact with the girls, was undoubtedly the best.

Although I didn’t like the book, it didn’t work the same way with the movie. In the latter, you can clearly see or feel the interaction of the boys and Lisbon girls. They constantly spied the Lisbon house to see whats going on and their voice was not distant. It was more personal and it tells us they are not just the narrators but rather the same people who have been dearly affected from the suicides.

Trip Fontaine and Lux Lisbon at the football field

If you haven’t read the book and watch this movie, you wouldn’t find major differences in the book. The film captures the book’s theme, reliably. However, some things that raises ambiguity, both for the book and film, still prevails. The reason why the Lisbon girls killed themselves, how they felt upon imprisonment , why they didn’t rebel remains a mystery or as far as my analysis would go.