If you haven't seen the movie, don't read it, OK?

Two words come to mind when I think of The Virgin Suicides: hypnotic and voyeuristic. The film, which was adapted from the debut novel by Jeffrey Eugenides, strays little from the text. Although Sofia Coppola, who wrote and directed the film, obviously placed a larger focus on the girls then the novel did, the two seem hardly heterogenous. Rather, the book and movie act as extensions, building on eachother, reinforcing themes and feelings. The voyeurism remains, as does the dizzying hypnotism. We never get to know the girls, or the boys who are so fascniated by them. Just as the four girls come into focus they are rushed off into the background, and we are left with the boys, and the haunting music of Air, to wonder.

And all the while we do it willingly, because we love to watch. That's the culture. We love to peek and guess and ultimately what we desire is some kind of spectacle, the pay off - in this case, suicide. I immediately blamed the mother. Man did I hate her. Why was she so unbelievably repressive? If I lived in that town I would have wanted to say to her, "There, are you happy - you fuck!" I mean that's five girls all dead because of a mother's overbearing personality. Are we to blame the father as well? I mean, he clearly lost it. When asked by the girl's principle why his daughters hadn't been to school in a month, the father - a math teacher at the high school - responds, "Did you check out back?" This coming from a guy who was caught asking plants if they had their photosynthesis that day. It's a pretty funny scene, actually.
But, getting back to the voyeurism theme, I don't think Coppola or Eugenides wanted any blame to be placed. You really are left with wonder. It is the desired effect. The whole town is left to wonder, though they couldn't care less. Near the movie's end someone makes a joke out of the suicides by falling into an inground pool.

What really stuck with me at the end of the movie was the tree. This is something that Coppola embellishes on in the film. Adjacent to the girl's home is a dying tree. It is one of many dying trees lining the suburban streets of their neighborhood. The girl's take a stand against the tree service company by wrapping themselves around the tree, hand-to-hand. Their mother and father even encourage it. But why? What is the significance? I was thinking that the dying tree represents their lives as girls, which are in many way doomed. They have already had a sister commit suicide. The tree service is maybe society, the voyeurs. They want the spectacle, they want the suicide. It satisfies their thirst for the obscene and vulgar. It also removes something unwanted, like the dying tree, from their 'nice' neighborhood. They don't want four perfect girls in their neighborhood, distracting their boys from ivy-league universitys. They certainly don't want a religious fanatic like the mother, or a ridiculously inept math teacher. Or maybe the tree represents life in general (the third album by mxpx). I don't know exacltly. I'm simply left to wonder.

What makes Coppola's film such a success is it's subtlety and elegance. She tells this story so delicately and patiently that you feel safe, yet uneasy because of the impending doom. Their is an air of 'no way out' that hangs over this movie. The choice in music certainly helps achieve this feeling. And that, a feeling, is what the director and novelist hoped we would come away from the story with. A feeling that stuck with you. Possibly this feeling forces you to question the voyeuristic culture, perpetuated by the media, that thrives on spectacles like teen suicide. But it is the feeling of wonder, sad wonder, which must exist first, as a prerequisite, before you can do this critique. I guess it's kind of odd to go through with a movie or novel only to achieve a feeling, but Hemingway did it in The Lost Generation, and I think Eugenides and Coppola have done it as well. I'll call it 'bittersweet curiosity'.