Movie Review by Bill Rendall

Heavenly Creatures

The New Zealand film industry is small but has created some interesting movies in recent years. A great example is Heavenly Creatures which is set in the New Zealand city of Christchurch in the fifties.

Heavenly Creatures is a "gal pal" movie with a sinister edge. It is based on a true story of a gruesome murder but as a contrast there are vivid fantasy sequences which represent the imaginary world two girls create for themselves. I haven't seen any other movie which merges real life and imaginary scenes so effectively. There is sometimes too much camera movement for my liking. There are other times where the camera movement is very effective, such as when the camera takes us on an internal tour of a sandcastle.

One of the girls is played by Kate Winslet. I am sure that Winslet's subsequent success in movies such as The Titanic will prompt more people to watch Heavenly Creatures. A lot of people will discover a gem they might otherwise have missed.

Heavenly Creatures is directed by Peter Jackson, who also wrote the screenplay along with his wife Frances Walsh. Jackson appears in the movie as a man on the street who Winslet impetuously kisses after watching a Mario Lanza movie. The two girls worship Lanza and he features prominently in the soundtrack.

Near the end of Heavenly Creatures we are treated to some scenes from the classic movie The Third Man which features Orson Welles as an evil man inhabiting the subterranean sewers of post-war Vienna. Orson Welles is the personification of evil in the girls' imaginary world.

I believe the film is a fairly accurate representation of what really happened. It is a tribute to Peter Jackson that he was able to create such a wonderful and interesting movie without straying far from the truth. Most Hollywood movies that are based on a true story use a lot more artistic licence.

There is a lot of attention to detail in Heavenly Creatures. Even the accents have been carefully recreated. One of the girls has a thick working-class New Zealand accent while the other has a refined English accent.

I suspect the two real life women who committed the murder all those years ago wish the movie hadn't been made as it has sparked renewed interest in their current identity and whereabouts. One of them has realised her childhood ambition of being a writer and lives in Scotland writing murder mysteries under the name of Anne Perry.

Be warned that this is a confronting movie. It is only gory at the end but there is a constant air of impending doom. The morality of the girls is chilling. Although it is disturbing I highly recommend Heavenly Creatures.

Director: Peter Jackson

Screenplay: Peter Jackson, Frances Walsh 

Music: Peter Dasent

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