Heavenly Creatures.

Review #1507: Heavenly Creatures.

Cast:
Melanie Lynskey (Pauline Parker), Kate Winslet (Juliet Hulme), Sarah Peirse (Honora Parker), Diana Kent (Hilda Hulme), Clive Merrison (Dr. Henry Hulme), Simon O'Connor (Herbert Rieper), and Jed Brophy (John) Directed by Peter Jackson (#1486 - Bad Taste)

Review: 
"I was reading the script in the back of the car and I turned to my dad and yelled, "I've GOT to get this!". And he replied, "Then you will." And I thought, "Yep, that's it. I'm bloody well going to." And that was it. I was so determined."
"I always thought I'd be in New Zealand doing theater. Everything I've done is greater than my greatest dreams."

It's easy to do a fascinating film about history when it happens in your back yard, or shall we say in the Fourth World. This was the debut performance for both Lynskey and Winslet, with each having been picked after hundreds of auditions for each role and both having acted from a young age (each appearing in plays from a young age along with Winslet appearing in television). This proved an important development for Jackson, who had primarily done horror-comedy films before this (with Braindead being released two years prior). It was his partner Fran Walsh who brought the idea of doing a film about the murders, interested in the obsessive relationship of Parker and Hulme that ended up in one of the most infamous murders that gripped New Zealand in the 1950s. A large majority of the filming would be done at authentic locations in New Zealand, including Victoria Park where the events of that day of June 22, 1954 occurred. Jackson and Walsh did research on the story through interviews with people who knew about Parker and Hulme (both of whom had since long been living under different names) along with utilizing diary entries that the former had written about the friendship.

Ultimately, what we have here is a strikingly fascinating film, careful in its depiction of its outcast focuses with the right sense of understanding and tension to make a riveting psychological drama. Jackson and Walsh deserve credit for not springing into sensationalism or broad generalization, instead going for a sort of surreal treatment within its mixing of reality and fantasy that makes a sort of haunting growth story. The secret weapon of the film is the effects from WETA Limited, utilized to show the fictional kingdom of Borovnia in their latex plasticine glory for the fantasy sequences among other moments such as a morphing garden. It makes a world one could see perhaps sacrificing for in its mythic imaginative quality. In terms of performances, Lynskey and Winslet obviously prove up to the challenge. Lynskey serves herself with a quiet and sort of unassuming intensity, one that drives us in interest over what she is really thinking and saying in the contrast of her life with her parents compared to the growing world of imagination and other passions with her one true friend, which we can find palpable even while batting an eye at the extent of their fantasy. Winslet fits the other side of the coin with flourish and vulnerability that has a great deal of conviction within a role that would've proved challengingly shaky to get a hold of for a weaker actress but feels like putty for Winslet to make for brilliant obsession. They have an interesting bond with each other that springs along with efficiency in displaying their unusually strong bond that deals within macabre romanticism like sisters, which naturally makes the decision at the end all the more frightening. Peirse and Kent round the contrasting corner in parenting, doing well in showing the difference in their treatment of their offspring that lends plenty of repressed curiosity that makes for good tension that isn't one-dimensional. On the whole, what we have here is a fascinating period drama that builds its dark sensibilities with a good deal of understanding and determination that sticks out from what could have been a pure true crime flick, making a clear portrait of troubled imagination come out quite clear for a winner.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.