I don’t watch many dramas but when I do, I make sure they’re really good. Heavenly Creatures, starring young Kate Winslet in her first role, is a fascinating character study based on real events. It’s coming to us from Peter Jackson, who decided to do something different after two excellent horror comedies. I’m talking, of course, about Brain Dead and Bad Taste. Now, Jackson was born some seven years after these tragic events but I’m sure that the whole of New Zealand was still very much discussing it. Hell, here we are almost half a century later still talking about it.
So, Heavenly Creates takes place in the fifties and it follows the romance between two teenage girls. As you can imagine this sort of relationship was quite scandalous back then. However, this isn’t a movie about lesbians or anything like that. This is a movie about love and the people who are in love just happen to be of the same sex.
Now, what makes this even more interesting are the events that followed. I will leave most of them out so as to not spoil anything. This is a movie with a unique artistic approach. That especially shows in the segments that Pauline and Juliet show in their imaginary land. Although the poster says thrilling, the pacing is rather slow but never dull or boring.
Pauline Parker is a shy teenage girl living in Christchurch, New Zealand. When she meets Juliet Hulme, Pauline will become more open and outgoing. The two of them will soon start to have a lot of fun together, living in their own imaginary world. However, that world is about to have a huge crash with the real world.
And I promised myself I’m not going to bore you to death with religion and why I think it had a major influence on these events. I’m just going to say it and ask if you feel the same. Let me know in the comments below. Moving on, Heavenly Creatures does have a pretty vibrant atmosphere for a movie dealing with these issues.
I would say that there are three perspectives here and that we’re seeing the third one. First is the two of them, second the public and the third is best described as a perspective of an imaginary friend of the two girls who kept filming them while they were within their little bubble. Love will make you do all sorts of things.
Director: Peter Jackson
Writers: Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson
Cast: Melanie Lynskey, Kate Winslet, Jed Brophy, Peter Elliott, Darien Takle, Sarah Peirse
True Events: Parker-Hulme case
Fun Stuff: A picture on the wall in Pauline’s bedroom is a photograph of the real Juliet Hulme.
Rating:
IMDb Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110005/
