Adolescent suicide is often as baffling as it is tragic.
Teenagers are just beginning their lives, yet far too many choose to end them when they should be exploring their potential.
Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides tries to treat this subject with dark, sombre humour.
She's only partially successful because she has sacrificed too much plot and character for atmosphere.
Her film is far more moody and mysterious than it is insightful.
The ethereal dreamscape is 1970s America as remembered by a male neighbour of the Lisbon sisters, as the five girls were known.
The beautiful blonde-haired girls were daughters of the high school science teacher (James Woods) and a strict evangelical mother (Kathleen Turner).
Collectively, the boys at school lusted after the Lisbon sisters, but the girls were literally kept prisoner in the towers of their home. They went to church, family outings and school. The rest of their time was spent in the family residence away from the temptations of youth.
When the youngest sister first tried slashing her wrists and eventually threw herself onto a spiked fence, Mrs. Lisbon imposed even stricter curfews and rules to save her four remaining daughters. To no avail.
Before the end of the year, the four siblings eventually followed their youngest sister's example.
The mystery of the Lisbon suicides haunted the neighbourhood boys well into adulthood, as is evidenced by the narration from Tim Weiner (played by Jonathan Tucker), one of the four boys who had actually attended the only house party the sisters were ever allowed to host.
At first, the narration suggests Tim will finally be able to solve the mystery of why the Lisbon girls -- who seemed so beautiful, talented and aloof -- should end their lives with a suicide pact.
No such luck. At least for Tim.
The appeal of the summer of suicides for him is the illusive mystery itself.
That is also supposed to be the appeal of The Virgin Suicides for audience members.
It's unlikely too many viewers will be as dumbfounded as the narrator, whose grown-up voice is provided by Giovanni Ribisi.
Just three family visits with the hen-pecked father and tyrannical, religious mother and it's painfully clear why the girls are so conflicted.
Woods and Turner turn these parents into the kind of monsters of self-absorption one expects to find in a John Waters film.
The performances verge on caricatures, but at least Woods and Turner are given distinct characters. The five sisters are like sylphs who glide interchangeably through the proceedings.
Lux (Kirsten Dunst) temporarily distinguishes herself when she and Trip Fontaine (Josh Hartnett) become prom king and queen.
Coppola has given The Virgin Suicides the look and feel of a student film -- as if it were not only recalled by the narrator, but shot by him.
This technique is effective for a while, but then it becomes distracting because the colours are so soft and the lighting so minimal.
The Virgin Suicides is a commendable debut film, but it is certainly a better fit for art house theatres than the mainstream film circuit.
(This film is rated AA)
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