The Virgin Suicides

Rewind to middle-class American suburbia in the 1970s: Kathleen Turner and James Woods play upright parents to five attractive teenage daughters. The girls, aged 13 to 17, are beginning to explore the delights of puberty, but their mother and father take a healthy (and ever so slightly puritanical) interest in their lives, carefully ‘screening’ every boy who shows any sign of attraction towards their delectable-looking daughters. This perfect family life is torn apart by their youngest daughter’s inexplicable attempt at suicide. Neither shrink nor priest nor the decision to ‘mix more with boys’ have the desired effect of curing Cecilia from her dark urges… Soon, tragedy spreads through the whole family like a sickness. Narrated by the boys from the neighbourhood, this tale of doomed teenage spirit never discloses any simplistic motives or explanations for the girls’ deeds. Instead, The Virgin Suicides develops a rare balance between teenage awkwardness and comedy on the one hand, and sadness and shock on the other. With its pop modernist tone, elliptical structure and highly engaging cast including Kirsten Dunst, heart-throb Josh Hartnett (from The Faculty), Woods, Turner, Danny DeVito and Scott Glenn, Sofia Coppola’s début feels like an authentic attempt at ‘working through’ teen comedy and to search for its hidden secrets. (A.H.)