Before shooting even began, Sofia Coppola, daughter of Francis Ford Coppola, had her work cut out. The daunting task of being the daughter of Francis Ford (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, and more) and husband of Spike Jonze (Three Kings and Being John Malkovich), would not help her in the least bit when she decided to make this movie. Moreover, the author of the book, Jeffrey Eugenides had already called it impossible to adapt. But few knew that Sofia had already started writing the script in secret, and few backed her when she declared she wanted to make this film. What we get in the end is a beautifully depicted narrative on the lives of the 5 Lisbon girls and the town that their deaths plagued.

This is the resplendent tale of the five Lisbon girls who so tragically and unexpectedly take their lives. Even the narrator (one of the 4 kids who had a peculiar fascination with the Lisbon girls, reflecting 25 years later), Giovanni Ribisi, says that there really wasn't a way to understand these girls, no way to understand what they were thinking, what they were feeling, and why the ultimately take thier lives. I don't think we're supposed to understand why they took their lives, for they were so complex, so misunderstood, and so sheltered from the world, they were mysterious and almost anonymous to the world around them. Even these 4 boys, who took care to collect every piece of information about them and try to look into their sheltered world, could not understand them. While the boys were trying to decipher what the girls were thinking, what they were going through, and what they were feeling, they never even scratched the surface, and perhaps that's the point of the film. While we never really scratch the surface of why these five girls commit suicide, we do get a quick glimpse of their lives, more than most people in the quiet 70's suburban town could ever imagine. That's what makes this film so splendid. We get an inside view into these five girls, what makes them tick, but ultimately, we don't ever see a big enough picture, we never see enough to completely understand them.

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Genres: Drama
Rated: R
Runtime: 97 minutes
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