Friday, January 15, 2010
News Fantasy and Murder: Heavenly Creatures Revisited
Posted by Allison Keene @keeneTV on Fri, Jan 15, 2010 at 7:36 PM
In his recent review of The Lovely Bones, Curt Holman made reference to the film that elevated Peter Jackson from a "purveyor of lively schlock" to the kind of director who would be given the keys to one of the most intricate and imaginative film franchises in history. Before Jackson delved into crafting the expectations of our collective fantasy of Middle Earth in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, he explored a much darker and more personal world of delusion: the Parker-Hulme murder.
Based on the diaries of Pauline Parker (portrayed by the oft-overlooked but fiercely engaging Melanie Lynskey), Heavenly Creatures (1994) chronicles the mutually obsessive, potentially homoerotic relationship between two young teenage girls in 1950s New Zealand, whose shared delusions lead to the murder of Pauline's mother - by the girls' own hand. It was also the first feature film role for Kate Winslet, who played the feisty and damaged Juliet Hulme, Parker's co-assailant and object of affection.
For Jackson, the film's focus was always meant to be on the girls' relationship prior to the trial - the friendship that lead to a mania of infatuation with one another that alarmed everyone who bore witness The murder of Pauline's mother was a final, calculated attempt by the girls to secure their future together as both sets of parents worked at keeping them apart, but the weight of this desperate act is offset by the levity of the dream world the Parker and Hulme occupy prior to it. Like The Lovely Bones, Heavenly Creatures splits its time seamlessly between this world and another, one that is just as real to its inhabitants as anything experienced here on Earth. In a similar vein, Jackson used a medley of animations to lavishly render these settings, allowing us to visit and experience these splendors in a way that straddles the possible and the fantastic. Yet, the hallucinatory effects of the girls' minds are not at odds with the weight of the impending tragedy. How else, really, could a story of such darkness fueled by chaotic teenage angst be stomached except in this nightmare-dreamscape?
Heavenly Creatures is not without its moments of humor and pathos, but in the end of course there is nothing lovely nor heavenly here. Beginning and ending the film screaming and covered in blood, the girls' have clearly mired themselves in a self-made hell. But it is to Jackson's credit that one cannot help but feel attracted to, while strongly reviled by, these young monsters. They aren't Romeo and Juliet nor quite Leopold and Loeb, but they are beasts of some kind that, through Jackson's careful handling, deserve a second look at their twisted tale.
(screen grab courtesy of www.heavenly-creatures.com)
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