Main Cast: Kirsten Dunst, James Woods, Kathleen Turner, Josh Hartnett, Hanna R. Hall
Release Year: 1999
Country: US
Run Time: 97 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
A dark comedy punctuated by moments of drama, The Virgin Suicides explores the emotional underpinnings of a family starting to come apart at the seams in 1970's Midwestern America. The Lisbons seem like an ordinary enough family; Father (James Woods) teaches math at a high school in Michigan, Mother (Kathleen Turner) has a strong religious faith, and they have five teenage daughters, ranging from 13-year-old Cecilia (Hannah Hall) to 17-year-old Therese (Leslie Hayman). However, the Lisbon family's sense of normalcy is shattered when Cecilia falls into a deep depression and attempts suicide. The family is shaken and Mother and Father seek the advice of psychiatrist Dr. Hornicker (Danny DeVito), who suggests the girls should be allowed to socialize more with boys. However, boys soon become a serious problem for Cecilia's sister Lux (Kirsten Dunst). Lux has attracted the eye of a high-school Romeo named Trip (Josh Hartnett), who assures Father of his good intentions. But Cecilia finally makes good on her decision to kill herself, throwing the Lisbons into a panic; and after attending a school dance, Trip seduces and then abandons Lux. The Lisbons pull their daughters out of school, as an emotionally frayed Mother keeps close watch over them. Meanwhile, Lux continues to attract the attentions of the local boys, and she responds with a series of clandestine sexual episodes with random partners as often as she can sneak out of the house. The debut feature from Sofia Coppola (whose father, Francis Ford Coppola, co-produced this film), The Virgin Suicides also features supporting performances from Scott Glenn and Giovanni Ribisi. The film was shown as part of the Directors Fortnight series as the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
The Virgin Suicides paints an emotionally harrowing portrait of adolescence. Simultaneously nostalgic and foreboding, Coppola finds just the right tone to deliver a warning about the way girls grow up in society, while still having enough grace to show us there may be hope. The cinematography and acting reinforce the theme of fantasy colliding with reality. Ed Lachman utilizes a dreamy, nostalgic look which allows the tragedy of the film to hit the audience even harder. Kirsten Dunst gives a stunningly mature performance. She manages to simultaneously play both the fantasy dream girl and the pained reality that make up the conflicting aspects of Lux's personality. Giovanni Ribisi narrates the film with a voice that is simultaneously resigned and filled with wonder. It is the voice of maturity looking back on youth. He is a representation of the adult voice of all the boys in the neighborhood who spent their days fantasizing about Lux and her sisters. At the end of the film, he tells the audience that they now realize they knew nothing at all about the Lisbon girls. This understanding may be the first step. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
John Buchan - Casting, Fred Roos - Co-producer, Nancy Steiner - Costume Designer, Sofia Coppola - Director, James Lyons - Editor, Melissa Kent - Editor, Fred Fuchs - Executive Producer, Willi Baer - Executive Producer, Air - Composer (Music Score), Yasna Stefanovic - Production Designer, Edward Lachman - Cinematographer, Francis Ford Coppola - Producer, Julie Costanzo - Producer, Dan Halsted - Producer, Chris Hanley - Producer, Richard Beggs - Sound/Sound Designer, Sofia Coppola - Screenwriter, Jeffrey Eugenides - Book Author
The story takes place in Grosse Pointe, Michigan in the early 1970s, as four neighbourhood boys reflect on their neighbours, the five Lisbon sisters. Beautiful but strictly unattainable due to their overprotective, authoritarian and religious isolating parents, Therese, Mary, Bonnie, Lux, and Cecilia Lisbon are the enigmas that fill the boys' dreams.
The film begins with the suicide attempt of the youngest sister, Cecilia, and the immediate aftermath. During a chaperoned party that summer — intended to make Cecilia feel better — Cecilia excuses herself mid-party and finally succeeds in taking her life by jumping out of her bedroom window and impaling herself on an iron fence. In the wake of her act, the Lisbon family isolate themselves even more within their community, heightening the sense of mystery about them.
The new school year starts that fall and Lux forms a secret relationship with Trip Fontaine, the school heartthrob. Trip eventually persuades Mr. Lisbon to allow him to take Lux to the Homecoming dance (by promising to find dates for the other sisters and go as a group). After being crowned Homecoming King and Queen, Lux loses her virginity to Trip on the football field that night. Trip abandons her immediately afterwards.
Having broken curfew, Lux and her sisters are punished by a furious Mrs. Lisbon by being taken out of school and sequestered within their house indefinitely. Unable to leave their home, the Lisbon sisters contact the boys using light signals, and share songs over the phone as a means of communicating their emotions back and forth.
During this time, Lux begins to have anonymous sexual encounters on the roof of the house late at night, while the boys watch from across the street. Finally, after months of confinement, the Lisbon girls signal for the boys to come over one night — presumably to help them escape from the house. When the boys arrive, they find Lux smoking a cigarette alone in the living room. She invites them inside to wait for her sisters, while she herself goes to wait in the car.
The boys wander into the basement and discover a body hanging from the ceiling; terrified, they rush back out of the house. In the process, they stumble across the bodies of the remaining Lisbon sisters, who had all killed themselves in an apparent suicide pact moments before: Therese took sleeping pills, Bonnie hanged herself in the basement, Mary stuck her head in the gas oven, and Lux died of carbon monoxide poisoning by leaving the car engine running in the garage.
Devastated by the suicides of all their children, Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon quietly flee the neighbourhood, never to return. The Lisbon house is sold soon after, along with all their personal belongings. Though the adults in the community go about their lives as if nothing important really happened, the dead girls remain a source of mystery and grief for the boys, who cannot forget them.
The film was generally well-received by critics, it has a 76/100 Metacritic rating.[4] The New York Post heaped praise on the film; "It's hard to remember a film that mixes disparate, delicate ingredients with the subtlety and virtuosity of Sofia Coppola's brilliant The Virgin Suicides."[4] The Philadelphia Inquirer outlined its attributes; "There's a melancholy sweetness here, a gentle humor that speaks to the angst and awkwardness of girls turning into women, and the awe of boys watching the transformation from afar."[4]
The film's score featured two tracks by the Frenchelectronic band Air, including "Playground Love". The film soundtrack featured songs by 1970s-era performers and by (90's) Sloan. A separate soundtrack album was released, featuring music from Heart and Todd Rundgren.
^The Virgin Suicides is Hayman's only film credit. She is a long time friend of the director, Sofia Coppola, and was given a part in the movie for this reason. She can also be seen in The Flaming Lips' promo for "This Here Giraffe" which was also directed by Coppola.
