Review of The Virgin Suicides (2000) by Wayne K — 26 Jan 2018
The Virgin Suicides is a talented debut from Sofia Coppola, but it's not necessarily a great cinematic experience. The film suffers from uninspired dialogue, intrusive narration and an unwillingness to pick a tone.
Giovanni Ribisi provides voiceover, but never actually appears in the film, and while the story is told from the boy's point of view, the only one we see as an adult is Josh Hartnett, who we get to know the least of all of them.
It takes a brave look at the difficulties young people face and the lengths they may go to escape their troubles, but it's never really established how gruelling their lives are. They have strict parents, but the worst they do is give them a curfew and make one of them burn her LP collection.
Nothing suggests that they're being pushed to breaking point. It's acted well and the cinematography is nice, but it made little impact on me, and the ending feels so disconnected to the central storyline that it could only have been there to pad the runtime.
If you decide to give it a miss, you won't have any regrets about it.
This review of The Virgin Suicides (2000) was written by Wayne K on 26 Jan 2018.
The Virgin Suicides has generally received very positive reviews.
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