Search form

HEAVENLY CREATURES (1994) (***1/2)

Check Out the Trailer

The first time I saw this twisted little film I didn't really like it. But after several viewings, I've been won over by LORD OF THE RINGS director Peter Jackson's tale of two young girls in the 1950s whose imagination and sexuality become too hard to handle for their parents.

Based on a true story, Pauline Parker (Melanie Lynskey, BUT I'M A CHEERLEADER) is a cubby loner who is nagged by her over-protective, yet caring mother, Honora (Sarah Peirse, UNCONDITIONAL LOVE). Then enters the flamboyant and highly imaginative rich girl Juliet (Kate Winslet, TITANIC). Before too long the two girls create an entire kingdom of knights and maids in their heads, casting themselves as central characters. Pauline starts going by the name Gina and Juliet goes by the name Debora.

Juliet's father Henry (Clive Merrison, UP AT THE VILLA) starts to suspect the worst — the two girls are… homosexuals. Dun, dun, dun! Henry and Honora decide it's best to keep the girls apart, which only forces the girls to sink further into their fantasy world. The actions of the girl's parents, understandable in a 1950s context, lead to Pauline and Juliet to decide to kill Honora.

Jackson wonderfully films the picture from the fantasy perspective of Pauline. The girls are dramatic and interpret the world dramatically. The film does an amazing job of slowly building how the two girls' minds start to blur the line between reality and fantasy, fueled by their intense and passionate love for each other. I was reminded of my own overactive imagination during the fantasy sequence that follows the girls' first viewing of Orsen Welles in THE THIRD MAN. After they leave the theater they believe they are in the movie as they race home. As they begin to lose grip on reality, the darker and more twisted their fantasy world becomes.

The performances are solid throughout. I especially love Peirse's dead on performance as Pauline's domineering, but caring mother. Her work at the end of the film only makes the story more heart wrenching. Of course, Winslet is amazing in the film that made people sit up and notice her. She never overplays Juliet. We believe that she is drunk on life and fantasy. The honesty of the performance makes her actions all the more disturbing, because she's a real person losing her way instead of some caricatured "crazy person."

It's an imaginative, haunting, disturbing and tragic tale of growing up and feeling misunderstood by the world outside one's own mind. Upon viewing the film the first time, I believe that the ending was too disturbing. I had come to care for these girls and I dreaded the path they were taking. It's a true story where you don't want the film to go where it went in reality. I've come to realize that's not the film's greatest weakness, but it's greatest success.

Support the Site

Buy "Heavenly Creatures" Here!

Rick DeMott's picture

Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks