Heavenly Creatures
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Movie Reviews of Heavenly Creatures
Movie Review: Peter Jackson's early brilliance.
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw this film years ago when it had its major theatrical release. Years later, it remains as powerful. The wonderful, odd vision of Peter Jackson (Director of LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy) is put to use in this story of two young girls whose fantasy world runs amok.
I think it would be fair to say this is the breakout film that brought Kate Winslet to the well-deserved attention of a world market, but her co-star Melanie Lynskey gives the more complex performance of the two in this, if only because her role is given more layers. The DVD is an uncut version, and it lends a different light to her sexuality than the version in theatres, but it is all still awkwardly (perfect for this story telling) ambivalent.
Jackson makes weird and wonderful use of the clay figures and fantasy land of the girls, and although I don't really think he has a full handle on what a girl's fantasy land would be made of (this one was awfully muddy - ick), it is still a compelling, complete and disturbing vision - all fitting. There are truly great moments which feels completely, messily, real. Sarah Peirse's entire performance is wonderful, as the more downtrodden and distressed mother. This is really fine acting.
Not long after the film was released, the actual case this was based on was re-opened, and it was found that, as part of their "treatment," the girls were given a drug to sedate them, but it has since been shown to cause extreme violent outbursts. It is too bad this information could not have been available as the film was made. I believe Jackson could have incorporated this and made the film even richer. But that would be icing. This is a true story, and a truly wonderful film of it.
Movie Review: A (very) short review
Summary: 5 Stars
What can I say about this movie? It really touched me. It's about two girls, Juliet and Pauline, who become friends and face several hardships which eventually lead them to murder one of their parents. There's more to it then that though. The two girls, they make up their own world, with their own characters with their own rules. They eventually depend on each other. I guess what gets to me about the film is about how real it felt. What the girls do, they run around, play about, write stories, idolize the teen idols of the day (Including Mario Lanza and James Mason. Orson Wells is excluded from their idols because Juliet calls him hideous.), they way they interact with each reminds me of what I do with my friends, and that one friend in particual. Of course, I'm 15 the age of these girls so I relate to them much more then an adult would, I believe. It's a darker tone film with some quirky effects that one expects from Peter Jackson. Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey give stunning performances, especially since this was their film debut. It doesn't contain the gore that one would expect considering Jackson's previous works like Braindead and Bad Taste, but there is one murder scene but it's truly chilling, ranking up there with one of the worse murders to be filmed, on my own opinion. I love this film to death and it makes me cry every time I see it. It just feels, so real. Even when clay figures come to life in the girl's fantasy, it doesn't seem to break any barriers, it feels with in reach of reality.
I highly reccomend at least one viewing. If you're under 18 you may find a few things hit a bit closer to home then you'd like...
Movie Review: MESMERIZING FORAY INTO TURBULENT IMAGINATIONS
Summary: 5 Stars
Jackson's fiery screenplay and stunning dreamscape montages became eerily real when I read on the closing credits that it was all based on the real diaries of one its adoloscent protagonists.
It is a difficult story of filial murder -- two sisters so devoutly in love with each other that they would go any lengths to stick together, including murdering their own mother -- but the film captures it with unsparing sharpness, deeply disturbing in its potrayal of the whims of the human mind.
Apart from that surface theme, Heavenly Creatures also hints at deeper issues. There is a strong attraction between the two girls, and the film doesn't fudge the glint of lesbianism. In fact in its mocking treatment of the adults who try to label their friendship as "unwholesome", the film urges us to look beyond any tidy summaries.
It is also refreshing to see a director respecting the complexity of each character's obsessions; the murderers are not necessarily driven by deliberate evil, but victims of turbulent imaginations themselves. Despite their crazy behaviour, we end up empathizing with them as well as the mother. In this regard, the three central performances by Melanie Lynskey, Kate Winslet and Sarah Peirse are simply riveting.
Jackson is now known for his 'Lord of the Ring' histrionics. The imagery in this film tells us why he reached that pinnacle.
The DVD sadly is a bit sparse, devoid of the special features a film of this cadre so richly deserves, but the film itself is a pulse-pounding must-see of a murder yarn. Recommended in a blink.
Movie Review: Heavenly Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
I watched this film because I enjoyed FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING and TWO TOWERS and think that Peter Jackson is a talented director. I wanted to see more of his work in another genre.HEAVENLY CREATURES is a wonderful and complex film. Jackson (and cowriter Fran Walsh) takes what could be a salacious story (homosexuality, sex, and murder) and makes an amazingly surreal and touching film. After the shootings in Columbine and other dastardly acts - including the two real-life New Zealand girls who are the subject of this story - Jackson gets into the state of mind of the youth. The two New Zealand girls (played by Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey) are too consumed by their fantasy world to know right from wrong. They are young and confused and their best recourse is their imaginations (incredible sequences with life-size clay people!).
Jackson has created a very theatrical world in HEAVENLY CREATURES. There are some hilarious filmatic references (including some funny bits about Orson Wells). The characters are complex, though. Jackson and Walsh made me understand WHY the girls chose to do what they did -- which doesn't make it right. But the film makes no moral judgment (which I appreciate!), it only tells the girls' story.
The DVD looks very good, with an excellent transfer of the film (although I noticed some scratches running down the right side of the frame in the early scenes!).
I'm glad I finally saw HEAVENLY CREATURES. I'm convinced Peter Jackson is one of our best directors around.
Movie Review: What a story and what acting! Not- so "Heavenly Creatures"
Summary: 5 Stars
It's fun to watch a movie that is full of sharp acting, perceptive and deft direction, and characters that are both sympathetic and yet down right eerie....and then get to end of the film and find out THAT IT WAS TRUE!!!
Where has "Heavenly Creatures" been hiding all these years from my film viewing????
This story about the ultra-intense relationship of two girls from from 1952 to 1954 in New Zealand who end up committing matricide held my attention in all ways for the brief 109 minutes that it was playing. Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet, under the direction of a pre-Jackson The Lord of the Rings - The Motion Picture Trilogy (Platinum Series Special Extended Edition) and pre-Winslet Titanic (Three-Disc Special Collector's Edition) and pre-Lynskey The L Word - The Complete Seasons 1-3 that was mind boggling. It is films like these that are such a pleasure to discover that pre-dates the greatness that was to come for these actors and director. Not much more to say. A true story that is absorbing, shocking and expertly filmed. No need to go any further!