Heavenly Creatures

Peter Jackson. New Zealand. 1994. 99 minutes.

“Only the best people fight against all obstacles in the pursuit of happiness.”

Telling the chilling tale of the obsessive relationship between two young school friends (a pre-Titanic Kate Winslet, alongside a striking performance by Melanie Lynskey) who’s desire to be together leads them to an act of desperate passion, ‘Heavenly Creatures’ draws the viewer into a meticulous fantasy world created in the minds of the girls. United by their love of literature and the possibility of other worlds, Pauline Rieper (Lynskey) and Juliet Hulme (Winslet) embark upon a haunting and adventurous journey, all the while alienating their families and peers thanks to the anti-Christian and homo-erotic nature of their co-dependency.

Much more than a simple ‘Based on True Events’ TV film, Peter Jackson’s (Lord of the Rings) disturbing yet beautiful masterpiece is as much concerned with the trials of girls growing through adolescence as it is with the climactic crime that occurs when the fantasy that comforts the friends is threatened by external oppression. Thus what could have easily degenerated into a cliché ridden, standard real-event shock movie, instead engages the audience on a far more cerebral level. Having said that, Jackson’s attention to detail is exemplary, almost all the locations used for filming were the places where the genuine events took place, and all the narrative journal voice-overs were taken from real diary entries made by Pauline Parker (changed to Rieper for the film’s purposes).

A powerful and yet ethereal film, ‘Heavenly Creatures’ makes for a captivating evening’s experience lightened by some humourous touches in spite of its heavy subject matter. With a wide range of appeal, from stark drama, to enchanting visions of other realities, the true highlight of the film has to be, however, the definitive impossible to spot director’s cameo (if you, uninformed of the cameo’s nature, manage to point it out to your friends, you might as well consider yourself a cinematic deity, and treat them like the serfs they are for the rest of all time, though I suggest you leave the delusional hallucinations of grandeur to Winslet and Lynskey as they only lead to tragedy).

Review by Ben Wilkinson
Taken from EUFS Programme Autumn 2003

With Heavenly Creatures, the first of his films to reach a mainstream audience, Peter Jackson proves to any doubters that he's a seriously talented man. (Bad Taste was enough to convince me of the man's genius - even there he exhibits a vision; the real miracle how being he achieved so much with so little.)

Based on real events, Jackson describes Heavenly Creatures as "A murder story about love, a murder story with no villains." Two teenage girls, Pauline Parker (Melanie Lynskey) and Juliet Hulme (Kate Winslet) met in 1950s New Zealand. They became inseperable friends, sharing a passion for Mario Lanza and - more importantly - a fantasy world, Borovnia. When the girls parents became concerned at the girls mutual obsession, they tried to seperate the duo, with murderous consequence.

Jackson's recreation of 1950s New Zealand convinces (he used the same setting for Braindead (1992)). His direction impresses, with some fine camera moves, flashy hand-held sequences, and even a touch of playful dutch-angled homage to The Third Man (the movie the girls go see, before being chased by Orson Welles/Harry Lime). The special effects, computer generated and conventional, are good. The two leads play their parts brilliantly, convincing in both their innocence and their malevolence.

Review by Keith H. Brown
Taken from EUFS Programme 1995-96