Heavenly Creatures (1994)

Bringing Peter Jackson to mainstream prominence and presenting Kate Winslet & Melanie Lynskey in their screen debut, Heavenly Creatures combines the elements of romance, fantasy & coming-of-age story into one psychologically dark yet tragic drama to bring a notorious real-life crime to cinematic life.Set in the 1950s in New Zealand, Heavenly Creatures tells the story of two young girls who bond over their mutual interests for fantasy & literature and become very close over time. However, when their parents deem their relationship unhealthy and separate them, the two conspire to take matters into their own hands.Co-written & directed by Peter Jackson (best known for The Lord of the Rings), the film focuses on the friendship between the two teenage girls rather than the crime & its aftermath and establishes their affection for each other as pure & beautiful, often going as far as to illustrate the fantasy world that they had created for themselves.The story is fun & lighthearted at first, depicting their developing friendship as rich & compelling and slowly delves into a sinister territory as plot progresses before finally culminating with an ending that's as tragic & soul-shattering as it's haunting. Treated in a way that evokes sympathy for both, it's a story about a beautiful friendship that went horribly wrong.The visual effects for fantasy segments that Jackson manages to accomplish with the limited budget is no doubt impressive while the swift zooms & fluid movements of the camera provide the film an energetic flow. Editing makes sure all events are captured from the girls' perspectives and stays by their side at all times. And music makes its presence felt only when necessary.But the real highlight of Heavenly Creatures is the riveting performances from the leading ladies as both Kate Winslet & Melanie Lynskey leave a lasting impression in their given roles and their on-screen chemistry is just as sparkling. Between the two, Lynskey delivers a better input but Winslet has a charm & flamboyance that makes her character instantly appealing. The supporting cast ably play their part but they're no match to what these new arrivals pull off together.On an overall scale, Heavenly Creatures offers a thoroughly captivating account of a real-life tragedy by handling its subject matter with required care & attention, and also covers the themes of love, friendship, imagination, obsession & homosexuality with sincerity. The final moments in particular are difficult & heartbreaking to watch but it also hits the story home. Establishing Peter Jackson as a serious talent with promises of greater things to come and introducing the world to one of the most beautiful, admirable & incredibly gifted actresses of our time, Heavenly Creatures is absolutely worth your time & money.

While the film blends reality with imagination - the 2011 book "Anne Perry and the Murder of the Century" is an extremely detailed and thorough telling of the story and an invaluable source for more specific details as to the events depicted in this film. The film is lovely and full of imagination, but the book's straight-forward details, and the less-fantastical and astonishingly true-life events as they occurred, is required reading for any fans of this film or of the writer Anne Perry.

This film is about real-life teenage friends Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme in New Zealand in the 1950s.Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey are excellent as the friends who are suspected by their parents of being a lesbian couple and who react very badly to being separated. This is Winslet's best performance.

Juliet and Pauline are two girls that become very good friends in a brief period of time, and I couldn't, exactly, understand why. Winslet's character is an arrogant teenager that enjoys being seen as the smartest one. Pauline, on the other hand, seems to be some ordinary girl with some strong anger towards her parents, and the plot never really reveals the reason for it. She's also a naive girl when it comes to sex, which can be noticed in the scenes she shares with an older boy. Even thought a lot of people considered it to be a great film, I didn't like it that much. In my opinion, the plot is too slow and contrived, reason why I felt bored during almost all the way through. However, I'm gonna admit that the final scenes are surprisingly intense and hard to be seen, but that's the only "great" moment in the whole picture. "Titanic" was really a better choice for Kate Winslet...