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List Price: $9.98 | | Label: Paramount
Salesrank: 9825
Released: December 19, 2000 |
| Our Price: $4.42 |
| Used Price: $2.92 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
In a quiet Michigan community in the mid-1970s, neighborhood boys try to piece together the lives of the five Lisbon sisters, kept isolated by their over-protective parents.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 9-AUG-2005
Media Type: DVD
Description of The Virgin Suicides:
Previously criticized for her marginal acting skills, Sofia Coppola made her directorial debut with The Virgin Suicides and silenced her detractors. No amount of coaching from her director father (Francis Coppola) or husband (Spike Jonze) could have guaranteed a film this assured, and in adapting Jeffrey Eugenides's novel, Coppola demonstrates the sensitivity and emotional depth that this material demands. Surely the pain of youth and public criticism found its way into her directorial voice; in the story of four sisters who self-destruct under the steady erosion of their youthful ideals, one can clearly sense Coppola's intimate connection to the inner lives of her characters.
Played in a delicate minor key, the film is heartbreaking, mysterious, and soulfully funny, set in a Michigan suburb of the mid-1970s but timeless and universal to anyone who's been a teenager. The four surviving Lisbon sisters lost a sibling to suicide, and as its title suggests, the film will chart their mutual course to oblivion under the vigilance of repressive parents (Kathleen Turner and James Woods, perfectly cast). But The Virgin Suicides is more concerned with life in that precious interlude of adolescence, when the Lisbon girls are worshipped by the neighborhood boys, their notion of perfection epitomized by Lux (Kirsten Dunst) and her storybook love for high-school stud Trip (Josh Hartnett). Unfolding at the cusp of innocence and sexual awakening, and recalled as a memory, The Virgin Suicides is, ultimately, about the preservation of the Lisbon sisters by their own deaths--suspended in time, polished to perfection, and forever untainted by adulthood. --Jeff Shannon
The Virgin Suicides Reviews:
Conservative family kills daughters 
2009-09-29 - Or something to that effect. Another in the "American Beauty" camp of willfully narrow-minded views of middle America.
passable 
2009-08-08 - This wasn't a particularly good movie. Much of the story was dry, uninteresting, and well, just *dry*.
Everything from the party in the beginning of the movie where the boys went over to the girls house, and neither the girls or boys were talking to each other at the party. This part was too long, but at least here it was building up to a suicide involving the youngest sister (of the five sisters).
The story continues the boredom aspect when the sisters eventually go to the high school prom with the guys. Again, boring boring boring. Overlong romantic scenes and nothing interesting about what was taking place.
You can probably guess what happens just by the name of the movie, and yeah, it was a sad ending, but it also was a shocking ending, and I don't really mean that as a compliment- the storyline did nothing in the way of building interest to the ending, so it was more like "Oh ok, so that was it?" when it was over.
At least the movie tried keeping my interest in a few spots, and the rock music that was included in the film focused on the mid to late 70's scene with KISS, Heart, and other bands.
I just couldn't see much appeal in this one I'm afraid.
Screw the Movie, Read the Book!
2009-03-10 - As soon as I heard the title, I was pining to see this movie. Alas, when it came out, I wasn't able to see it. So I researched it. When I found out it was based on a book, I got the book. I read it in two days, and decided it was my favorite novel (until a few years later when I read Requiem for a Dream). The book was so amazingly original. When I finally saw the film, I wanted sooooo bad to like it. I even convinced myself for a while that I did. The cinematography really was beautiful, but the actual script only had minor things I liked (little added touches with the parents that the book lacked). But when I watched the film again a few years later, I was mad. It was not nearly as clear as the book was (I think the first time I saw it I kind of filled myself in with my knowledge of the book). And honestly, it wasn't even half as interesting or intriguing as the book. When I saw it again, I was shocked at the great reviews.
I really didn't like Kirsten Dunst in this. Not bad acting, just a bad script. In the book, the character seemed more real to me, less dumb. I feel like the script just played up on a "hot" actress instead of focusing on real character development. Besides the cinematography, the film didn't add enough to the book to actually buy. I would rent it if you loved the book (just to see someone's take on it), but if you haven't, I can't imagine why you would be interested.
good movie! 
2008-11-25 - movie is very very close to the book....good job with keeping true to the book....i dislike when directors deviate too much from the book.....if you can read the book first, go for it, and then watch the movie.
Sofia's launch to a movie that seems to grow on you
2008-08-29 - What I loved about the Virgins is the simplicity of complexity that revolves itself around the absurd. Then again what is absurd, and what is unimaginable? In a world with six billion plus, anything and everything is possible. The film lingered with me for hours after seeing it, I didn't want it too end almost, I wanted to know the girls more, and yet I couldn't, they were lifeless, and that is the pure remarkability of Coppola to bring us into a world so perverse that we only want to be on the outside window shopping, and see that even in the most glorious of beauty, lies the complex intricies of abnormaility. It's a sick film, a funny film, it reminds me sort of in a way to Almost Famous. I can't really say why, but it seems to share some sort of tangible relevance to actually care whats going on in each moment of the film.
The Virgin Suicides has a killer soundtrack, Air is breathtaking in key scences that surely needed it and the stereotypical role of the jock using the girl for as long as he could to just make it around home plate, is a sure kick in Jonny Football hero's keester, as its spot on.
I recommed this for people who want something entirely different, and James Woods of course handles it yet again, and gracefully shows us what acting is beyond reciting lines, its living a part, and he does it deliciously so. Great seeing Scott Glenn, who I think is just awesome, even in a bit part, and shame on the company for giving Danny Devito top billing for his less than two minute role, which was pointless and pathetic. Josh Hartnett is made for the role in which he portrayed. Buy it!
A Strong 3.5 Stars
