Heavenly Creatures **** (1994, Kate Winslet, Melanie Lynskey) – Classic Movie Review 1701

Co-writer/director Peter Jackson’s 1994 thriller stars the 18-year-old Kate Winslet, who gets her first big break and makes her startling and auspicious big-screen debut in this deservedly acclaimed real-life murder drama. It’s also fascinating now as an early work by director Peter (The Lord of the Rings) Jackson.

Winslet and Melanie Lynskey (also in her debut) play Juliet Hulme and Pauline Parker, two early 1950s obsessive adolescent New Zealand schoolgirls who start an intense friendship, which changes from concocting bizarre fantasies into scary violence as they commit a brutal murder. The fantasy-driven friendship has tragic results when they conspire to kill Pauline’s mother after their parents decide to separate them, believing their relationship is unhealthy.

This weird, disturbing thriller is extremely well acted and commandingly directed by Jackson, coming up with a highly imaginative movie.

Jackson makes use of music from Puccini’s Tosca and Madama Butterfly. Fran Walsh and Jackson’s Best Original Screenplay was Oscar nominated. In the 1996 London Critics Circle Film Awards, Jackson was voted Best Director and Winslet Best Actress. Jackson won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1994.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1701

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