(rated R, 97 mins.)
Limited release
In an ordinary suburban house, in the middle of 1970s America, lived the five beautiful Lisbon sisters, whose doomed fates indelibly marked the neighborhood boys who to this day continue to obsess over them. The story includes love and repression, fantasy and terror, sex and death, memory and longing and — it works.
The sisters played by Leslie Hayman, A.J. Cook, Chelse Swain, Hanna Hall and Kirsten Dunst were everything desired and unattainable: gorgeous, luminous and completely off limits due to their parents (James Woods and Kathleen Turner) strict household rules. With no choice the neighborhood boys watched through half-opened window shades, binoculars and fantasy until they witness something that will shake their very souls.
Based on the acclaimed novel by Jeffrey Eugenides’ this is a dark, grown-up fairy tale carved out of the funny-sad fabric of suburban teenhood. Sophia Coppola (daughter of Francis Ford) makes her directorial debut that she pulled off to feel very 1970’s but could have lost a little of the voice-over narration. Woods by the way, will surprise you for once in a “not so maniac” role.