Heavenly Creatures (1994)

Directed by Peter Jackson. Starring Melanie Lynskey, Kate Winslet, Sarah Peirse, Simon O’Connor, Diana Kent, Clive Merrison, Jed Brophy, Peter Elliott, Elizabeth Moody, Gilbert Goldie. [R]

Fevered, fascinating based-on-truth story of two teenage schoolgirls in Christchurch, New Zealand—sullen, glowering outcast Pauline Parker (Lynskey) and outspoken eccentric Juliet Hulme (Winslet)—who became fast friends upon the latter’s arrival from England, forming an intense, even obsessive bond that alarms their parents, doctors, etc. They slip away into imagined fantasy worlds, share each other’s secret dreams and desires, experiment with their budding sexuality, and plot murder. The real-life case created a sensation at the time, with the girls being viewed as something of a Kiwi Leopold-and-Loeb, but Jackson, along with co-writer Fran Walsh and co-producer Jim Booth, isn’t interested in the trial and aftermath. Focus is instead pointed almost exclusively on the girl’s relationship and the way that their imaginations blurred reality to such a degree that such a violent outcome was possible (Lynskey’s voiceover narration is culled directly from Parker’s actual diary). Cleverly scripted despite the generally superficial insight, injected with enough offbeat style, macabre humor and visual razzle-dazzle so that it doesn’t feel like a complete departure for the cult filmmaker, better known then as a connoisseur of splatter comedy and puppet depravity. The frenzied editing and overactive camera aren’t always the finest of aesthetic bedfellows in this forum, however; they’d be employed more effectively in Jackson’s next effort (The Frighteners). Film debuts for both Lynskey and Winslet, and the first film to feature the work of New Zealand visual effects company, Weta Digital. Dedicated to Booth, who died a short time after production ended.

80/100