The Alphabet Project: V is for...

The Virgin Suicides (1999)

A story about five sisters, and their mysterious existence, told in the words of the neighborhood boys who worshiped them and who come together 20 years later to try and solve the mystery of the Lisbon sisters as hilarity ensues. Cecilia (Hanna R. Hall) (13), Lux (Kirsten Dunst)(14), Bonnie (Chelse Swain) (15), Mary (A.J. Cook) (16) and Therese (Leslie Hayman) (17) move with their Mathematics teacher father Mr. Lisbon (James Wood) and their possessive housewife mother Mrs. Lisbon (Kathleen Turner) to a calm suburb house. Their beauty attracts the attention of a group of boys that meet in the house on the other side to watch the girls. When Cecilia commits suicide the other girl withdraw into their home for a time. They eventually start to reach out and re-enter society when Lux meets Trip Fontaine (Josh Hartnett), the handsome football player. When Lux fails to return home after a dance Mrs. Lisbon shuts the girls up in the house and away from society. The girls, desperate for contact with anyone, look to the boys across the street. It is a solitary story of the girls isolation and the sleepy portrayal of how they watched powerless as their fragile lives disappeared.

Trivia: When the boys and girls are calling each other to play songs on the record player, they don't use the standard '555-' phone numbers used in television and film. After she had written the script, Sofia Coppola was heartbroken to discover that another company was already producing an adaptation of the book themselves. However, they were not happy with their script, so she showed them hers and they ended up using it instead.

This was a pretty good film. Kirsten Dunst was probably the most beautiful I have seen her. The whole movie had a soft feel to it. No harsh lighting, no sharp corners, nothing like that as if the whole movie was in a dream. Amanda was able to correctly guess that I was going to be watching The Virgin Suicides so she gets to pick a movie for me it watch and review.

Next Up: "W" This Week's Clue: The theme song, or at least the first two lines of the theme song, are probably more famous then the movie. Last Week's Guesses...um...well, there was only one and it was Amanda's.