The Virgin Suicides

It's a shame that the reason why Sofia Coppola's debut film is not very good is that it's based on a book. The film tells of the Lisbon family in an 80's-era faux-American milieu. They are all described as quite beautiful by the narrator of the film, who ominously talks of the terrible events that befell them. The narrator, it seems, was one of a group of teenage boys who admired and idolized the girls, and then were shocked at their suicide(s). There's a lot of understated blame within the film, which is always just in the form of a hint than in the form of a definitive statement on why. Possibilities include the constricting parents, but in other scenes the film seems to laugh that off. This adds to the eclectic quality in Coppola's film, utilizing old hippie-music, dances, frivolous narration, and contradiction. The contradictions seem to exist to make the answer of why the girls killed themselves to be unsure and unsolvable: it works here. What also works is Coppola's style, but the fact that its undermined by an essentially sappy story is what is disappointing. The milieu the film establishes is one that is juvenile and uninteresting. The narration by one of the boys seems essential in order to accentuate the idea of the idolization of the Lisbon family, but that same narration calls attention to itself by seeming secretly sarcastic, or as if the statements and musings made in the narration only deserve to be in this film. In fact, its as if those musings exist only to support the film's narrative, and not the events surrounding the Lisbons. I admit that Coppola's direction here is quite fine, but it is so squelched by the narrative, which is overbearingly pretentious using words like: The adults had the ingenious idea to throw an asphyxiation ball. This seems like indie-oddity trash. Coppola's direction, and her actors (including Kirsten Dunst as the primary Lisbon girl) didn't deserve such schlocky writing.
The Virgin Suicides: ★★