Heavenly Creatures Blu-ray Review
Heaven and hell.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, December 2, 2011
The past year or so has been a banner twelve month period for Blu-ray fans of Peter Jackson. Not only have the
Lord of the Rings: The Motion
Picture Trilogy Extended
Versions been released in high definition (albeit in some controversial transfers), at least a couple of Jackson's
pre-
Lord of the
Rings efforts,
Dead Alive (AKA
Braindead) and
The Frighteners have also seen
the Blu-ray light of
day, letting fans get a good look at Jackson's directorial evolution. Now one of Jackson's most acclaimed earlier films,
Heavenly
Creatures, is arriving on Blu-ray, and a simple comparison between it and his previous film, the aforementioned
Dead Alive,
shows just how far Jackson had come in a scant two years. Now the two films are literally incomparable, the first being
an over the top
splatter-fest that's downright silly and (again literally) dripping with blood and guts, while
Heavenly Creatures is
a more somber,
albeit quite fanciful, evocation of one of the most celebrated murder cases ever to hit New Zealand. But on a purely
technical level,
Jackson's directorial craft is so far evolved from the somewhat primitive levels of
Dead Alive that it's almost
inconceivable that both
films sprang from much the same creative crew, and of course from Jackson himself. While there are certainly issues,
most of them dramatic,
still on display in
Heavenly Creatures, Jackson stages the film with a panache and flair far beyond the ken of
Dead Alive,
which still saw the director kind of feeling his way into an identifiable style. While
Dead Alive had a lot of
incredibly impressive
moments, including that great "lawn's eye" view of the mower which would later play such an important role in the film's
horrific climax, a lot
of the staging in the film seemed overly precious and even pretentious.
Heavenly Creatures is therefore
probably arguably the first
film of Jackson's directorial maturity, and while it's not perfect, it is often perfectly filmed, framed and tonally much more
assured than any of
Jackson's prior pieces.
Jackson begins
Heavenly Creatures with snippets from one of those old travelogue late forties-early fifties
newsreels which paint impossible idyllic portraits of their subject cities, in this case Christchurch, New Zealand.
Christchurch is shown to be a wonderland of gorgeous parks, gardens where toddlers happily scramble behind their
lawn
mowing fathers (there's that lawn mower trope again—were there lawn mowers in
Lord of the Rings?), and a
peaceful and serene populace bikes around their mini-metropolis without a care in the world. The newsreel plays as an
ironic "grown up" version of the fantasies which will soon erupt—and which Jackson portrays quite fancifully—between
two
teenage schoolgirls, Juliet (Kate Winslet) and Pauline (Melanie Lynskey). In 1953 conformity was the order of the day,
probably nowhere more so than in the stultifying confines of a girls' school, where conformity is actually dictated by
imperious teachers and a Headmistress who tells her charges to "Sit!" as if they were errant dogs.
Juliet and Pauline bond almost immediately, due partially to the fact that both were quite sickly young children, both
physically and emotionally scarred by their shared experience, but perhaps more importantly due to the fact that they
both have unreasonably romantic and fantasy-laden psychological profiles. Both girls swoon to the music of Mario
Lanza and they soon find themselves creating epic stories of a sort of
Lord of the Rings-esque land filled with
royalty and warring factions, though also populated by a bunch of goofy characters who are perhaps more reminiscent
of Lewis Carroll's Alice's "off with their heads!" Queen.
Jackson portrays the increasing obsessive quality between the girls, though the film skirts a number of facts, hinting at
(even outright depicting) some incipient lesbianism which the real life Juliet insists was never the case while never really
making a cogent case for the increasing hysteria that ultimately leads the girls to plot and carry out one of the most
notorious murders of the early fifties. Jackson and collaborator Fran Walsh do a fascinating job culling actual quotes
from Pauline's diaries (diaries which in fact led to her quick arrest after the murder) without really providing a convincing
context for what ultimately pushed both of these girls over the edge to taking another human life.
Of course part of this story is that it really doesn't make any sense. These were two girls who in Juliet's case at least
lived a fairly pampered existence, and who in Pauline's case may not have had all the physical comforts of an opulent
existence but who just as certainly wasn't horribly abused or neglected either. Jackson attempts to distract us from
this perhaps unsettling fact by repeatedly showing us the girl's fantasy worlds, which literally erupt into "reality" and
replace what's actually there. It's a compelling visual approach and it helps to show, albeit perhaps subliminally, both
of the girls' fragile grasp on ordinary day to day existence.
Winslet and Lynskey both made their film debuts in
Heavenly Creatures and they are both unforgettable in the
film, though truth be told, and perhaps a bit ironically considering their separate career trajectories, it's Lynskey who
walks off with the film, despite Winslet's contributions. It's all the more fascinating in that Lynskey plays a completely
shut down, frumpish character which gives her precious little opportunity to "show off" in an actorly way. But that
actually work to the film's benefit, and few will be able to erase Lynskey's glaring countenance from their minds once
they've watched the film. Winslet on the other hand comes off as a sort of junior Grace Kelly, waltzing through scenes
in gossamer gowns and living her own impossible dream of marrying a Saint in her own self-created religion.
The dialectic between the girls' burgeoning fantasies and their everyday life is of course the central conceit of the film
and also presents the viewer with the perhaps unanswerable question that haunts these characters. For two girls
whose imaginations were so incredibly robust, why would the only course of action which occurred to them be one of
the most brutal murders of its time? They may have indeed felt they were backed into a corner where events were
keeping them from continuing their relationship—lesbian or otherwise—but their lack of ingenuity in solving their "little"
dilemma is perhaps the most telling thing about their emotional and mental development.
Heavenly Creatures Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation
Juliet Hulme, the Kate Winslet character in
Heavenly Creatures, went on to reinvent herself after her release from
prison as best selling mystery novelist Anne Perry. Maybe it would take someone of Perry's abilities (not to mention history)
to unravel the central mystery of why these two girls ended up committing such a heinous crime. While
Heavenly
Creatures tries—valiantly at times—to provide some context and rationale for the girls' behavior, ultimately there's
probably no explanation for what actually happened. That leaves a gaping hole at the center of
Heavenly
Creatures which is only partially filled by Jackson and Walsh's screenplay, Jackson's visual flair, and the incredible
performances of the two leads, both perhaps improbably making their screen debuts. If you don't mind not having any
easy answers, or even any difficult ones,
Heavenly Creatures is an often bracing film which offers two unforgettable
performances and an unsettling general portrayal of disturbed teens that may make you parents of teenagers reading this
review think twice about disciplining your kids very aggressively. This is the best looking Blu-ray thus far, and despite the really disappointing
lack of any meaningful supplements, the release comes
Highly recommended.
