As lame as it sounds, I first heard of this film through my Netflix suggestions. After reading the description and realizing it fell partially in the category of a teen film and partially in the category of a drama, I decided to give this film a try.
The film is continuously narrated by one of they young boy characters, and I really enjoyed this because it gave it that real, personal feel to it, which I tend to get from watching more indie type films. Having one of the boys narrate the story was a cool choice because the story didn't revolve around them (it revolved around the five Lisbon sisters), so it gave a more familiar perspective to the film because the boys were outsiders, in a way, just like the us as the audience; we're left to wonder about the girls and try to understand them, just like the boys did in the film.
The most dramatized scene in the film, in my opinion, is the ending scene where the boys find the remaining four daughters have killed themselves - major spoiler, sorry. This scene in particular was the most difficult to understand. The reason behind killing themselves probably stemmed from their lack of freedom for the past months (they were pulled out of school and left housebound after Lux [Kirsten Dunst] broke curfew on Homecoming night). However, their lives seemed to be improving immediately prior to them taking their lives. They had found a way to communicate to the neighborhood boys and listen to music again. On the night they kill themselves, they invite the boys over once their parents are asleep, and the scene is set up to believe that the boys are going to drive the girls around, so they can get out of the house for once. The biggest contrast that was set up within the scene was the boys' imagination on how their adventure would be. It cuts away to them driving on a sunny day, the girls cuddling up against the boys with smiles on all faces. Immediately following the dream sequence, the boys find one of the girls hanging from the ceiling, and the deaths are revealed. It let me completely dumbfounded as to why it was necessary to invite the boys over when they all had the intention of killing themselves.
I haven't viewed very many of Sofia Coppola's films, but I think she has a really cool, indie-type style. It's even more interesting how she had her father producing the film; he has such a big reputation for his films, (for example, *The Godfather*), and he was probably a big influence and support figure in Sofia's career as a director. I would recommend this mostly toward a female audience because the plot is kind of slow moving and focuses a lot on smaller details, thoughts, and emotions, and I think typically women are more drawn to more emotionally stimulating movies than men. I was a little disappointed by the film itself because it felt very anticlimactic, with the exception of a few scenes; however, I did enjoy the style and structure of the film.3/5 Stars
