After winning a cult following for several offbeat and darkly witty gore films, New Zealand director Peter Jackson abruptly shifted gears with this stylish, compelling, and ultimately disturbing tale of two teenage girls whose friendship begins to fuel an ultimately fatal obsession. Pauline (Melanie Lynskey) is a student in New Zealand who doesn't much care for her family or her classmates; she's a bit overweight and not especially gracious, but she quickly makes friends with Juliet (Kate
Winslet), a pretty girl whose wealthy parents have relocated from England. Pauline and Juliet find they share the same tastes in art, literature, and music (especially the vocal stylings of Mario Lanza), and together they begin to construct an elaborate fantasy world named Borovnia, which exists first in stories and then in models made of clay. The more Pauline and Juliet dream of Borovnia, the more the two find themselves retreating into this fantastical world of art, adventure, and Gothic romance as they slowly drift away from reality. The girls' parents decide that perhaps they're spending too much time together, and try to bring them back into the real world, but this only feeds their continued obsession with Borovnia (and each other) and leads to a desperate and violent bid for freedom. Featuring excellent performances (especially by Kate Winslet) and imaginative production design and special effects, Heavenly Creatures skillfully allows the audience to see Pauline and Juliet both from their own fantastic perspective and how they seem to the rest of the world. Remarkably enough, Heavenly Creatures is based on a true story; in real life, Juliet grew up to become mystery novelist Anne Perry. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Combines original vision, a drop-dead command of the medium and a successful marriage between a dazzling, kinetic techno-show and a complex, credible portrait of the out-of-control relationship between the crime's two schoolgirl perpetrators.
Jackson (who wrote the script with Frances Walsh) evokes the girlsâ(TM) fantasy world with scenes featuring plasticene figures, creating an eerie, metaphysical dimension to the movie.
A dark, astounding film from Peter Jackson, showing his mastery of blending fact and fantasy. A deserved winner of Venice Festival's Silver Lion and Toronto Fest's Critics Award. Along with Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, this is 1994's most audacious film.
Genuinely disturbing with some fine performances. Full review later.
August 21, 2010
Thomas Bowler
Super Reviewer
Pauline: We realised why Deborah and I have such extraordinary telepathy and why people treat us and look at us the way they do. It is because we are MAD. We are both stark raving MAD! "The true story of a crime that shocked a nation."This early drama from Peter Jackson is a tremendous and haunting look at a
friendship gone horribly wrong. The film is notable for many reasons, one of which is that it is the film debut for Kate Winslet. She shows the huge talent she would become early on. It's also the debut of Melanie Lynskey. She didn't become as a huge a star as Kate Winslet, but she was phenomenal here. Bothe actresses pull their characters off to near perfection and that's really what the film depended on. Two girls start a friendship; one a quiet type, the other a loud and confident, if rather annoying girl. The friendship starts off as your normal run of the mill friendship. Two people with similar interests meet and enjoy those interests together. They do art together, listen to music, write and soon create a whole fantasy world that they begin to live in more then their normal life. This grabs the attention of the parents and through the girls rebellion, a shocking crime takes place. This may not be Peter Jackson's best film, but I believe it to be his best directing job. He weaves the true life story into an amazing film by diving into the girls friendship more than the actual crime. He let's their twisted friendship lead us to the shocking conclusion, instead of just making the movie all about the murder. The movie isn't hard to watch like you would think from the subject matter. That is, until the last few minutes.Heavenly Creatures is a one of a kind crime film that really elevated Peter Jackson to a whole new level as a filmmaker. Who could have guessed that he would reach a whole new stratosphere years later.
No quotes approved yet for Heavenly Creatures. Logged in users can submit quotes.
Submit a Quote from 'Heavenly Creatures'
A quote can be a single line from one character or a memorable dialog between several characters. Please make your quotes accurate. Quotes will be submitted for approval by the RT staff.
Example:
Luke: Alright. I'll give it a try. Yoda: No. Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.
Top Critic
