Heavenly Creatures (1994)

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Director: Peter Jackson

Writers: Frances Walsh and Peter Jackson

Stars: Melanie Lynskey, Kate Winslet, Sarah Peirse, Diana Kent, Clive Merrison, Simon O'Connor



Two teenaged girls in 1950s New Zealand form an obsessive friendship that ends in tragedy when their parents attempt to separate them.

 


Director Peter Jackson and co-writer Fran Walsh developed a powerful film from a factual crime that shocked Kiwis in the middle of the 20th century. 



Spoiler alert! the movie's finale!

Jackson and Walsh made the proper decision to base their film on the friendship of the two girls, climaxing with the crime and entirely ignoring the details of their trial and conviction.

 


This allows us to empathize with the girls, even though we know that something awful is going to happen, and making the climactic event seem almost as tragic for the perpetrators as it was for the victim. 



Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet, in their screen debuts, give powerful performances.

 


Winslet is especially good; her character is so beautiful and luminous that it is easy to understand how her friend could become so intoxicated with her, yet she always seems to be on the verge of hysteria, which keeps the viewer on edge.

































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