The Virgin Suicides (1999)
I blame it all on The Virgin Suicides. Kirsten Dunst was a sweet little girl, and then she did what a lot of child actresses felt the need to do: chose dark roles to prove she’s a serious actress. After that movie, the dark roles grew from sporadic to frequent until finally she was nominated for a film I won’t even watch with my eyes closed: The Power of the Dog.
I can’t imagine anyone enjoying The Virgin Suicides unless they have serious problems. I don’t think any movie should be made that glorifies teen suicide (and while some may argue that the film does not glorify it, I maintain that a film is glorification in itself, no matter the point of view). The title is not symbolic; the story is about five very young girls who end up taking their own lives. It tries to blame their actions on their strict, Catholic parents, but that’s completely unfair. Millions of children grow up with strict, Catholic parents, and they don’t develop serious psychological problems and commit suicide. It’s filmed in flashbacks and “modern” interviews with the men who knew the girls when they were young. We only find out snippets of their lives; much of the movie is instead a beauty pageant of their suicides. One pretty, innocent girl after another chooses one method after another, and we get to see their lithe, lifeless bodies with beautiful blonde hair and pale skin clothed in white dresses. . . you get the idea. It’s a disturbing story – but most of all, it’s disturbing that audiences actually watched this movie, and that the film was created by so many people who considered it a piece of “art”. In my opinion, it’s a piece of something else.
There was much more wrong with those poor girls than religion and parental rules – but writer-director Sofia Coppola didn’t want to explore the truth. Perhaps there was more character development in Jeffrey Eugenides’s original novel, but I have absolutely no desire to find out. Despite the cast of Kirsten Dunst, Josh Hartnett, James Woods, Kathleen Turner, Scott Glenn, Hayden Christensen and Danny DeVito, I wish I’d never seen this movie.
Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to upsetting scenes involving children, I wouldn’t let my kids watch it.
More Kirsten Dunst movies here!
I can’t imagine anyone enjoying The Virgin Suicides unless they have serious problems. I don’t think any movie should be made that glorifies teen suicide (and while some may argue that the film does not glorify it, I maintain that a film is glorification in itself, no matter the point of view). The title is not symbolic; the story is about five very young girls who end up taking their own lives. It tries to blame their actions on their strict, Catholic parents, but that’s completely unfair. Millions of children grow up with strict, Catholic parents, and they don’t develop serious psychological problems and commit suicide. It’s filmed in flashbacks and “modern” interviews with the men who knew the girls when they were young. We only find out snippets of their lives; much of the movie is instead a beauty pageant of their suicides. One pretty, innocent girl after another chooses one method after another, and we get to see their lithe, lifeless bodies with beautiful blonde hair and pale skin clothed in white dresses. . . you get the idea. It’s a disturbing story – but most of all, it’s disturbing that audiences actually watched this movie, and that the film was created by so many people who considered it a piece of “art”. In my opinion, it’s a piece of something else.
There was much more wrong with those poor girls than religion and parental rules – but writer-director Sofia Coppola didn’t want to explore the truth. Perhaps there was more character development in Jeffrey Eugenides’s original novel, but I have absolutely no desire to find out. Despite the cast of Kirsten Dunst, Josh Hartnett, James Woods, Kathleen Turner, Scott Glenn, Hayden Christensen and Danny DeVito, I wish I’d never seen this movie.
Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to upsetting scenes involving children, I wouldn’t let my kids watch it.
More Kirsten Dunst movies here!