# Virgin Suicides, The (1999)

### reviewed by
Geoff Berkshire

    The Virgin Suicides
    A Film Review By Geoff Berkshire

Cast: Kirsten Dunst, James Woods, Kathleen Turner, Josh Hartnett, Hannah Hall, Danny DeVito, Scott Glenn, Jonathan Tucker, Michael Pare Director: Sofia Coppola

The debut film from Sofia Coppola will provoke interest from many people for many reasons, few of them involving the material itself. Will she be as disastrous a filmmaker as she was a performer in The Godfather Part III? How will she measure up to her famous father (or for that matter new husband Spike Jonze, whose directorial debut Being John Malkovich was one of last year's best)? Those may be the initial curiosities knowing audiences bring to The Virgin Suicides but it turns out they really should be far more worried about the material itself.

Adapted by Coppola from a successful cult novel by Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides is ostensibly the story of the Lisbon family: five beautiful blonde daughters of a high school math teacher (James Woods) and his conservative wife (Kathleen Turner). Set in the upper class suburbs of Detroit in the late 1970s it is told from the perspective of the boys next door, the Weiner boys (that surname is supposed to be funny, I guess, but was already used to far better effect in Welcome To the Dollhouse).

The story focuses on the two youngest Lisbon girls. The youngest, 13 year old Cecilia (Hannah Hall, Young Jenny in Forrest Gump), recently made an attempt on her life. Her disturbed parents are advised by a psychologist (Danny Devito, in a sharply observed one scene cameo) to allow the girls more interaction with members of the opposite sex. A party is planned in the Lisbon basement, the Weiner boys are invited, and things are mostly awkward and uneventful in a normal way until the party comes to a shocking early finish.

The story now switches gears to the second youngest girl, the blossoming 15 year old Lux (Kirsten Dunst) who is learning the value of her gorgeous physical features. She attracts the attention of school heartthrob Trip Fontaine (Josh Hartnett) and begins a sly flirtation with him that eventually leads to going together to a school dance. It's in this section of the film where The Virgin Suicides hits its stride. The material has a familiar teen movie romance feel but nails every scene with virtues of assured filmmaking, smart acting and good attention to detail.

Trip's introduction, perfectly backed by Heart's "Magic Man", is a particularly vibrant stretch that instantly establishes his character. A sequence where Trip is invited to the Lisbon house to watch television is equally astute and, although we have seen many, the school dance is giddy and memorably fun with excellent use of Styx's "Come Sail Away" and a brilliant Peach Schnapps reference. In addition to the Styx and Heart songs the film has excellent music supervision overall and also benefits from a superb score by hip French techno band Air.

However, the film begins to lose focus again after Lux and Trip inevitably split. Lack of focus is the main problem with The Virgin Suicides. Everything is told from the point of view of an omniscient narrator (Giovanni Ribisi). This supposedly represents the collective voice of the Weiner boys, however nothing in the film itself told me this (I learned it from a friend who had read it somewhere and it's also contained in the production notes).

Beyond Lux and Cecilia we never get to know any of the Lisbon girls, they barely even speak. The Weiner boys are almost completely indistinguishable, although Jonathan Tucker's Tim seems to speak more than any of the others. There are also disorienting scenes where a grown up Trip (Michael Pare) talks, on camera, about his relationship with Lux, the only time in the film something like this happens. Pare is perfectly cast in the role but the presence of it in the film is questionable. There are scattershot scenes which poke fun at the community but these also seem random, although well done.

On the positive side, Coppola displays a transfixing visual style (Edward Lachman's cinematography is lovely) and a nice attention to details. She also gets wonderful work from all of the actors who actually have a role to play. Woods has a nice departure from his usual character as the timid math teacher. Turner, completely de-glammed, grabs on to one of her best parts in years and reminds what a great actress she is. Of the younger players Hartnett shows leading man potential in his memorable supporting role, Dunst proves she's better in a dramatic role like this than in her recent attempts at comedy, and Hall makes a vividly haunting impression, she reminded me a bit of a younger Sarah Polley.

Unfortunately these strengths are not enough to overcome the considerable flaws in the narrative. The film is structured like a mystery in the first and third acts but it's a mystery that is never solved. Even if the movie is simply about parents keeping too tight a hold on their children the message is never fully conveyed. Plus, as entertaining as the middle section of the film is, it doesn't really fit in with the tone of the rest of the film. Without learning very much about the Lisbon girls and the Weiner boys the finale simply lacks impact. The movie will inevitably be compared to The Ice Storm, due to time period and some tone similarities, but it pales terribly next to that milestone of the genre.

    **1/2 (out of ****)

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