The Virgin Suicides

(1999 USA Sofia Coppola)

The Lisbons have five children, girls, ages 13–17. The father teaches at their high school, and their mother is extremely protective of them. Consequently, they have no friends other than each other. Because they are all attractive, not to mention mysterious, the neighborhood boys become obsessed with them.

After the youngest girl unsuccessfully attempts suicide, the parents become even more protective, but they also consult a counselor, who advises them to loosen up a bit, to give their girls a chance to socialize and interact with
their peers. They try to go along, but they truly are clueless, and their tendency to ‘helicopter parent’ results in the saddest little party ever. When they allow the school’s heart-throb to take one of the girls to the homecoming dance, (providing dates for all the other sisters, natch), and one fails to follow the rules, the hammer comes down.

This film works as a character study for the viewer, just as it does for the boys who fantasize about the girls. We never are able to understand either the parents or their daughters. We know no one is happy, but we don’t know why and we don’t know of a solution. Coppola, in her directorial debut, paints a picture, but draws no conclusions and teaches no lessons. It’s a surprisingly mature approach to take, and the resulting film may haunt viewers in the same way that the lads of neighborhood continue to talk about the sisters years after they’re gone.

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