The Virgin Suicides movie

The Virgin Suicides

Director: Sophia Coppola

Cast: Kathleen Turner (Mrs. Lisbon), James Woods (Mr. Lisbon),  Leslie Hayman (Therese Lisbon), A.J Cook (Mary Lisbon), Chelsea Swain (Bonnie Lisbon), Kirsten Dunst (Lux Lisbon), Hanna Hall (Cecillia Lisbon), Josh Harnett (Trip Fontaine)

Screenplay: Sofia Coppola

Year: 2000

Length:  1 hr. 37 min

Distributor: Paramount Classics

Verdict: SEE

Rated: R (It's really more like PG-13. Gah! See book review rating.)

Faithfulness: 98% faithful 

UNLIKE The Other Boleyn Girl I was shocked at how faithful this adaptation is in comparison to the book. There were only two scenes that were dropped from the book. Anyway, on to the review. The movie can be boring at times, but other than that I appreciated the way the film was shot, making us care for the Lisbon girls. The girls were absolutely brilliant, Kirsten Dunst is so sensual as Lux and Hanna Hall, who plays Cecillia has a mysterious aura about her which makes her perfect for the role. The rest of the girls don't have big speaking parts but they make great teens who just want to live. I loved the way Kathleen Turner portrayed her character, vulnerable but also caring. 
The movie as I said can be boring since there is not much dialogue but that really brings out the girl's feelings of being bored and trapped so I didn't mind that too much. The pace was much faster when Trip Fontaine (Josh Harnett is so cute!) starts his relationship with Lux then boring again when the house arrest starts. But it's not dreadfully boring as in you really want it to turn the damn TV off and go to sleep. This movie has beautiful shots that is not quite shy and not quite big, it has just the right pace, the right material the right setting, everything is so well presented, you can't help but feel haunted by the end of it.
Like the book the movie dosen't try to explain what's happening, but like the book brings out the gruesome reality of suicide. Sofia Coppola did an amazing job bringing in all the emotions you feel while reading the book and brought in dialogue and monologues her narrator says from out of the novel, so that sense of poetry not only from the writing but the tone comes forward. There's nothing fancy, nothing to impress you, just real life shown on screen in front of your own eyes.
Again, this movie tends to get boring so I guess I could give it a RENT. But fans of the novel will be absolutely thrilled, and the acting is high class. It's beautiful and haunting and even if you know nothing of the book, this movie will still really impress you. Well Sophia, you really are talented after all.

Suicide, told in an unsusal way

The Virgin Suicides
By: Jeffery Eugenides
Setting: Grosse Point Michigan, 1970's
Format: 243 pgs.
Verdict: READ IT
Rated: PG-13 (A bit creepy to be a PG book. Plus there's mentions of sex and language.)

Suicide, is no laughing matter. Especially when it involves five sisters committing it in a course of a single year. Their suicide begged the question: Why? Why commit suicide? Most importantly, why all five? These questions cycle through four boys, who grew up in the same neighborhood, overlooking the same incident twenty five years ago. It all started with the death of their youngest sister, then a forbidden romance. Sooner than later, one girl violates the curfew, and all of a sudden, consequences start coming, and boy are they drastic.
A book about suicide can grab your attention. The originality of this book, the genius of this book, is what makes you grab the very edge of your seat with its graphic and true depictions of suicide. Eugenides doesn't make suicide just another myth, this is a wake up call. The book is gritty and realistic, not littered with cliches and dramatic soap opera-like plot points. Instead of telling you what happens, it asks you the question, trying to make you the reader figure that question out.
One of the best characters in this book are the sister's themselves. Eugenides' doesn't write them as imaginative characters in the boy's mind, but literal real flesh and blood literal characters.These girls have flaws and the best part is when the boys realize it. The most daring, Lux for example, is sexual and acts like the female version of a womanizer, while Cecillia, the youngest and the first to go is a misfit. What helps create that sense of imperfectness is the writing. The sheer poetry and brilliance comes off Eugenides' writing, which trigger vivid images with its striking, beautiful language. This factor is one of the best in the novel, and sometimes when I felt the pace too slow for my taste, the reason why I continue reading is because of the writing.
The one critique I have of this novel is that it's painfully slow at times and it wasn't abnormal that my mind was shouting GET TO THE POINT! Alright, the youngest died. It's sad. We don't need an endless account of her parents getting ready for her funeral. We don't need an endless scene about discussions of suicide. In the end I didn't mind really, you just have to just realize that the book isn't set up like a normal fiction. It reads like a memoir, and if you respect that, I don't see why anyone would have a problem with it.
I hesitated on giving it a CHECK IT OUT just because of the pace. But the writing is so beautiful and the characters are so delightful, and it's just so poignant, that I'm going to have to say READ IT. It's heartbreaking, it will make you think, it will challenge you. But beware readers who get irritated by slow paced books: This book is not for you. It will only be annoying as hell. As for the others, it's an important classic in the making.

Last sentence (just for the proof):
"It didn't matter in the end how old they had been, or that they were girls, but only that we had loved them, and that they hadn't heard us calling, still do not hear us, up here in the tree house with our thinning hair and soft bellies, calling them out of those rooms where they went to be alone for all time, alone in suicide, which is deeper than death, and where we will never find the pieces to put them back together. "