Heavenly Creatures (1994)

3.5 stars out of 4

The Bottom Line:

Featuring two convincing performances from its young leads, a scrupulous attention to detail, and inventive direction, Heavenly Creatures is a powerful and incisive look into events that happened in New Zealand 50 years ago. December 18, 2008

"Isn't it frightfully romantic?"

"Heavenly Creatures" was Peter Jackson's breakout film. It's an amazing contrast--with its small scale and documentary style--to the epic extravaganza of "The Lord of the Rings." What makes the story powerful is that it tells the true story of Pauline Parker (Melanie Lynskey) and Julie Hulme (Kate Winslet,having beginner's luck before Titanic) The girls were infamous for the matricide in Christchurch in 1954.

"Heavenly Creatures" powerfully blends the realistic with the fantastical. The two isolated girls create their own "Fourth World"--where Mario Lanza sings,they're princesses,and there are no Christians. Their close friendship becomes closer in the erotic sense as well--they bathe together,they kiss,they ask the permission of a male "saint" to be intimate with each other. They come from dysfunctional families. Parker's parents aren't married-a scandal at the time- and Hulme's parents are divorcing. As their families disintegrate, Julie and Pauline become obsessed with each other. They can't bear separation. They become immersed in their fantasy world.

"Heavenly Creatures" doesn't excuse the girls for their crime. It is depicted as it was--horrific. The girls' punishment is exactly what they feared the most. Peter Jackson shows the relationship as unhealthy for being obsessive,alienated from reality&finally murderous,not for being homoerotic.

"Heavenly Creatures" is an early masterpiece for Jackson and Winslet. Jackson powerfully creates an "alternate world" and its consequences. Though the girls' "Fourth World" had no Christians,it's ironic that Pauline Parker is now devoutly Catholic,giving equestrian lessons, while Julie Hulme calls herself Anne Perry,is a convert to Mormonism,and is now a mystery writer. Perhaps they have found redemption. December 9, 2008

An impeccable film that captures the heart and chills the soul...

Peter Jackson's savagely brilliant `Heavenly Creatures' has to be his finest cinematic moment. Sure, he astounded millions (and won Oscars) for his `Lord of the Rings' trilogy, but he has never been as honest and as human as he was with his delicate handling of this startling true life story.

The film opens with a sequence as shocking as its conclusion; the image of two blood soaked teenage girls floating across the screen. This opening lays a solid foundation for the masterpiece we are about to witness. `Heavenly Creatures' tells the story of young Pauline Parker, a social outcast who lives under the strict rule of her parents Herbert and Honorah. She has no friends and truly no life until she meets Juliet Hulme, the beautiful and interesting new girl. The two girls bond quickly and that bond grows deeper and stronger with time. That bond is threatened though when their parents begin to suspect that maybe the girls are too close and attempt to separate them. What happens as a result is as horrific as it is heartbreaking.

Peter Jackson's visual styling here is marvelous; the way he interjects colors and shapes to deepen the meaning behind many events in the film and to embellish the relationship between Pauline and Juliet. This is especially evident when studying the fantasy world the two girls create for themselves.

`Heavenly Creatures' truly sinks into the minds of these two girls, sheltered from the outside world and jaded by everyone around them except one another. As their devotion towards one another grows they retreat into their fantasy world, a world where they can be together always. They have alternate identities (Pauline is `Gina' and Juliet is `Devora') and they gallivant around clay figures and sing Mario Lanza songs and are ultimately free from the confines of their natural born existence.

This film also marks the big screen debut of both Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet. Both girls are flawless here, utterly flawless. Lynskey captures the desperation and loneliness that engulfs her character, a loneliness that could lead someone to kill. Her relationship with her parents is fleshed out beautifully, and Lynskey portrays the perfect emotions at the precise time to make her character not only believable but truly sympathetic. Kate Winslet is a revelation as Juliet. She embodies her character with confidence and sophistication and natural charm. It's apparent from her first role that she would become a legend, and look now, just fourteen years later, and she has five Oscar nominations to her name. Alongside Winslet and Lynskey there is also a stunning performance given by Sarah Peirse, who plays Honorah, Pauline's mother. Her performance is brilliant, controlled and commanding and breathtakingly honest.

`Heavenly Creatures' is a wonder of a film; at times soft and delicate, charming and sweet and then savage and brutal; a film that will capture your heart and soul and tears it to pieces. As some have mentioned, there are no villains here, only victims, and I think that Jackson's handling of the sensitive material helps translate that important point. By filming almost entirely on location (that is exact location of events) as well as having exerts from Pauline's actual diary read throughout, Peter Jackson helps create a sense of honesty, a sense of truism that permeates this impeccable film. `Heavenly Creatures' may be hard to watch, especially as the film draws to its shocking conclusion, but there is no denying that film this powerful is nothing short of heaven-sent. May 8, 2008

Better than all of the Lord of the Rings in the High Fantasy Genre

Great movie, but I feel that Winslet's character had more to do with the tragic end of the friendship than Lynskey's character. For the most part Pauline (Melanie Lynskey) followed Juliet's (Kate Winslet's) lead. It seems that a lot of the reviews put 60% of the blame on Pauline because she's the dark, gloomy one, but really the wholesome Juliet had the more screwed up family life and outlook; especially when it came to her own abandonment issues. Pauline was a perfect sounding board for Juliet's poor family life. And as the friendship and teen pressures increased, both girls literally got lost in a world all their own. Peter Jackson owes his career to this film. If it had not been for it, there would have been no Lord of the Rings, King Kong, etc. HEAVENLY CREATURES is his masterpiece. April 8, 2008

What a story and what acting! Not- so "Heavenly Creatures"

It's fun to watch a movie that is full of sharp acting, perceptive and deft direction, and characters that are both sympathetic and yet down right eerie....and then get to end of the film and find out THAT IT WAS TRUE!!!

Where has "Heavenly Creatures" been hiding all these years from my film viewing????

This story about the ultra-intense relationship of two girls from from 1952 to 1954 in New Zealand who end up committing matricide held my attention in all ways for the brief 109 minutes that it was playing. Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet, under the direction of a pre-Jackson The Lord of the Rings - The Motion Picture Trilogy (Platinum Series Special Extended Edition) and pre-Winslet Titanic (Three-Disc Special Collector's Edition) and pre-Lynskey The L Word - The Complete Seasons 1-3 that was mind boggling. It is films like these that are such a pleasure to discover that pre-dates the greatness that was to come for these actors and director. Not much more to say. A true story that is absorbing, shocking and expertly filmed. No need to go any further!

April 7, 2008

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