---
title: "The Virgin Suicides"
year: 2000
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-virgin-suicides"
fi1m_id: "the-virgin-suicides"
imdb_id: "tt0159097"
tmdb_id: 1443
wikidata_id: "Q1423971"
fi1m_score: 83
critics_score: 74
critics_reviews: 15
published: "2026-09-14"
updated: "2026-09-18T08:38:21.151263+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# The Virgin Suicides (2000)

Directed by Sofia Coppola · 1h 37m · MPA R · Drama, Romance

## Identity

The Virgin Suicides

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/the-virgin-suicides
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** the-virgin-suicides
- **IMDb ID:** tt0159097
- **TMDB ID:** 1443
- **Wikidata ID:** Q1423971
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159097/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1443, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1423971

**Fi1m score: 83** · Critics 74 from 15 reviews

*In a sentence:* The boys remember everything about the Lisbon sisters except what it was like to be one

> Sofia Coppola makes teenage longing painfully recognisable, helped by Kirsten Dunst and a score that encourages the daydreaming. We recommend it warmly, with a reservation: the sisters can disappear behind the boys’ fascination.

## Synopsis

In an American suburb, a group of boys become fascinated by the Lisbon sisters, whose lives they observe without fully understanding. Lux (Kirsten Dunst), Mary (A.J. Cook), Cecilia (Hanna Hall), Therese (Leslie Hayman) and Bonnie (Chelse Swain) grow up under the strict supervision of their parents, played by James Woods and Kathleen Turner. As the boys try to make sense of the girls, their longing shapes what they remember and what they imagine. Adapted by writer-director Sofia Coppola from Jeffrey Eugenides’s novel, the film follows adolescent attraction and family repression through recollection and fantasy.

## Review

Sofia Coppola’s *The Virgin Suicides* understands how much adolescent longing depends on not knowing another person. The neighbourhood boys who watch the Lisbon sisters are fascinated, but they lack the experience to make much sense of the girls’ lives. Coppola, adapting Jeffrey Eugenides’s novel, takes their memories seriously without accepting that their attention gives them special insight. It is a funny, deeply sad film, although its patience with those boys sometimes leaves the sisters too far away.

Kirsten Dunst, as Lux Lisbon, keeps that distance from becoming intolerable. She gives Lux humour and self-possession, so there is a recognisable girl here even when the boys are treating her as a mystery. We caught ourselves staring at her just as they do, and felt uncomfortable about it. Dunst makes the attraction easy to understand, while her performance keeps suggesting feelings that the boys have neither the knowledge nor the patience to recognise.

James Woods and Kathleen Turner give Mr and Mrs Lisbon a recognisable parental certainty. Their strictness belongs to an ordinary suburban household, which is what makes it disturbing; Coppola does not need them to announce themselves as villains. The social comedy matters here, allowing adult confidence to look faintly ridiculous while keeping its consequences for the girls in view. Turner in particular makes parental authority uncomfortable without asking us to enjoy despising it.

Edward Lachman’s photography helps turn the American suburb into the place the boys remember, where the girls seem almost impossible to approach. Jasna Stefanovic’s production design keeps those surroundings coherent even when the film moves into fantasy, so the imagined world still feels close to an ordinary home. Nancy Steiner’s costumes help locate the characters in the 1970s without making the clothes the main attraction. The period detail supports the recollections without becoming a distraction from the people.

The music by Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel encourages that drift into daydreaming, giving the boys’ desire a seriousness they could scarcely put into words. Editors Melissa Kent and James Lyons allow the film to linger, and the relaxed pace usually helps: we have time to recognise the embarrassment in the yearning. At 97 minutes, it is not a film that needs shortening simply because little happens. Still, some passages repeat a feeling that the performances and music have already made clear.

The larger reservation is about the sisters themselves. Keeping them partly unknowable is an honest response to the boys’ limited understanding, but it also means that their differences can become hard to grasp. Lux emerges most clearly, thanks to Dunst; the other sisters are less securely established as people with separate temperaments. Coppola is right to resist a tidy explanation for unhappiness, yet we wanted to know more about the girls as individuals.

That limitation matters in a film so alert to the frustrations of being young. Compared with a conventional teenage romance, Coppola allows an unusual amount of awkwardness and uncertainty, without treating either as a joke on the young. The humour is gentle enough to make the sadness harder to dismiss. Choose it when there is time afterwards to sit quietly before putting something else on.

*Fi1m score 83, published 14 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics like it, and they like it for the same reasons. Sofia Coppola’s debut is called assured almost across the board, and the praise gathers around mood rather than story: the hazy, backlit look, the 1970s detail, and above all the Air score, which nearly every review mentions by name. Kirsten Dunst’s Lux is singled out again and again, and several critics note that the film is as much about the neighbourhood boys’ longing as about the sisters themselves.

The reservations are mild and cluster in one place: plot. Several reviews find the story thin and the ending abrupt, with the sisters’ motives left unexplained, though most treat that as the point rather than a fault. The spread is narrow. Only Sight and Sound is properly mixed, admiring the suburban atmosphere but finding the finale falters on unconvincing trickery and an enigma leaned on too late. Reviews written two decades on land in much the same place as those from 2000.

## Straight answers

**Is The Virgin Suicides worth watching?**

*The Virgin Suicides* is worth watching for anyone who wants a funny, deeply sad film about teenage longing, and we scored it 83. Sofia Coppola takes the neighbourhood boys' memories of the Lisbon sisters seriously without pretending their attention gives them insight, and Kirsten Dunst keeps Lux recognisably human. Our reservation is that the other sisters can disappear behind the boys' fascination.

**How long is The Virgin Suicides, and what is it rated?**

*The Virgin Suicides* runs 1h 37m and is rated R by the MPA in the US. It is a drama and romance film.

**Where can I watch The Virgin Suicides in the US?**

*The Virgin Suicides* is available to rent from Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV from $3.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is The Virgin Suicides, and is it suitable for children?**

*The Virgin Suicides* carries a UK 15 certificate and a US R, and its subject, plain from the title, is the deaths of teenage girls, so it is not for children. There is little in the way of frightening or violent spectacle; the discomfort comes from family repression and adolescent desire, watched at a distance. Older teenagers should manage it, and may recognise more of it than their parents would like.

**How does The Virgin Suicides compare to Picnic at Hanging Rock?**

*The Virgin Suicides* and [*Picnic at Hanging Rock*](https://film.one/film/picnic-at-hanging-rock) both watch a community mistake speculation about young women for understanding, but Coppola's film is the warmer and funnier, and Weir's the more frightening. Weir keeps the sunshine and builds a mystery; Coppola stays with the boys' embarrassment and yearning. Both idealise their girls more than we would like, and we recommend either, depending on whether you want unease or sadness.

**Is The Virgin Suicides based on a true story or a book?**

*The Virgin Suicides* is based on Jeffrey Eugenides's novel of the same name, not on a true story. Sofia Coppola, who wrote and directed, keeps the book's device of the neighbourhood boys recollecting the Lisbon sisters, so the film works as memory and fantasy rather than as fact. You do not need to have read the novel; the film explains itself, and its gaps are deliberate.

**What should I watch after The Virgin Suicides?**

After *The Virgin Suicides*, try [*Picnic at Hanging Rock*](https://film.one/film/picnic-at-hanging-rock) (1975, Fi1m 88): Another community watches young women and mistakes speculation for understanding. Then [*Mustang*](https://film.one/film/mustang) (2015, Fi1m 84): Five sisters face family control, with more anger and less nostalgic distance; and [*The Spirit of the Beehive*](https://film.one/film/the-spirit-of-the-beehive) (1973, Fi1m 87): Childhood confusion and adult silence, observed with patience and unsettling tenderness.

### Reviews we read (15)

- **The Guardian**, Peter Preston (90/100, inferred): The critic calls Sofia Coppola's elliptical directorial debut a subtle triumph that captures the haunting complexity of the source novel and adds something of its own. He praises the spot-on performances, especially Kirsten Dunst's radiant and mysterious turn as Lux, along with the acute social comedy, moody score by Air, and the film's power to evoke personal memories of longing and incomprehension. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2000/may/21/peterpreston)
- **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (3.5/4): The critic emphasizes the film as much about the neighborhood boys' gawky yearning for the Lisbon sisters as about the girls themselves, praising how the lack of explanation preserves their perfection in memory. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-virgin-suicides-2000)
- **The AV Club**, Laura Adamczyk (85/100, inferred): Coppola faithfully captures the novel's complex nostalgia and tone through hazy, backlit visuals, period details, and the ethereal Air score, slowing down to show the girls' lives beyond the boys' gaze. The film excels at evoking the texture of memory and the passage of time through its dreamy aesthetic and point-of-view choices. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/with-the-exquisite-virgin-suicides-sofia-coppola-captu-1844652962)
- **The New York Times**, A. O. Scott (80/100, inferred): The critic praises Coppola's assured and imaginative debut as a filmmaker who creates a mood-driven film without conventional characters or story, noting her fearlessness in using fantasy sequences and resonant images. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/21/movies/film-review-evanescent-trees-and-sisters-in-an-enchanted-1970-s-suburb.html)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Kevin Thomas (75/100, inferred): The critic commends Coppola's impressive maturity and assured skill in her directorial debut, calling the adaptation highly affecting and venturesome though a real downer. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-apr-21-ca-21826-story.html)
- **Empire**, Liz Moody (70/100, inferred): Coppola's adaptation is a sultry, heady treat focused more on mood than plot, evoking adolescent sexual awakening through rich visuals and an ethereal Air score. It features strong performances, especially from Kirsten Dunst and the leads playing against type, though thin plotting occasionally undermines its impact. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/virgin-suicides-review/)
- **Evening Standard** (70/100, inferred): Sofia Coppola's stylish and well-crafted debut explores the Lisbon sisters' suicides through the eyes of neighborhood boys, hinting at strict Catholic repression while powerfully evoking teenage hormones and 1970s fashions. It excels at mood but leaves conclusions unresolved, ending on the note that the answer was never found. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/the-virgin-suicides-7433930.html)
- **Slant Magazine**, Ed Gonzalez (70/100, inferred): Coppola's dreamy paean to stilted adolescence has a universal appeal as it explores the mysteries of female sexuality and what lies behind troubled picket fences. The film is as much a relevant view of adolescence and male/female relations as it is an act of remembrance. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-virgin-suicides/)
- **The New Yorker**, Richard Brody (70/100, inferred): Coppola adapts the novel as an intricate struggle with absence, grief, and memory, anchoring the story in the charismatic Lux while evoking the boys' bemused frustration through poised images and period music. She is already a master at rendering inner depths startlingly visual in her first feature. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/the-virgin-suicides)
- **The Times**, Kevin Maher (★★★★☆): The film remains dreamy and beguiling despite its subject matter. Coppola conveys the imprisonment of being a girl, aided by the Air soundtrack and strong performances, especially Kirsten Dunst as Lux. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/the-virgin-suicides-1999-review-a-beguiling-psychological-drama-qj7dw80l8)
- **Total Film** (70/100, inferred): Coppola's directorial debut is a truthful arthouse take on teenage turmoil that is more affecting than typical teen films, with believable characters and a disturbingly erotic atmosphere. Beautifully shot and acted with wit and delicacy, it compensates for thin plotting through its hypnotic mood and Air soundtrack. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/the-virgin-suicides-review/)
- **Variety**, Emanuel Levy (70/100, inferred): The critic finds Coppola's feature debut promising and assured in its seriocomic tone, crediting her for avoiding satire or pandering while delivering a droll, heartfelt, and poignant tale despite some uneven direction. [Read](https://variety.com/1999/film/reviews/the-virgin-suicides-1117499786/)
- **Sight and Sound** (50/100, inferred): Coppola's debut is a mixed bag but a noteworthy one, successfully conjuring a magic-realist American suburbia through unified elements of performance, cinematography, sound and design. The film falters toward the finale with some unconvincing trickery and an overemphasis on the central enigma too late. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/world-silent-hysteria-virgin-suicides-reviewed-2000)
- **Paste**, Jonah Jeng (80/100, inferred): The critic sees the film as a thematically rich debut that explores female unknowability through the eyes of obsessive neighborhood boys, maintaining mystery around the Lisbon sisters without reducing them to objects of fetishization. It praises Coppola's empathetic handling of the material and the poignant confrontation with selfish male desire, while acknowledging minor flaws like tonal inconsistencies and uneven screen time for the sisters. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/sofia-coppola/square-one-sofia-coppolas-the-virgin-suicides-1999)
- **Eye for Film**, Angus Wolfe Murray (70/100, inferred): Coppola's assured debut chills with its tale of the Lisbon sisters' suicides, questioning suburban strictness, high-school rituals and broken dreams through the nostalgic viewpoint of neighborhood boys. The director takes risks with imaginative photography and strong performances (especially Turner, Woods and Dunst), though the abrupt ending leaves some emotional distance. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-virgin-suicides-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray)

## Details

- **Director:** Sofia Coppola
- **Director:** Sofia Coppola
- **Screenplay:** Sofia Coppola
- **Novel:** Jeffrey Eugenides
- **Cinematography:** Edward Lachman
- **Editor:** Melissa Kent, James Lyons
- **Music:** Nicolas Godin, Jean-Benoît Dunckel
- **Production design:** Jasna Stefanovic
- **Costume design:** Nancy Steiner
- **Producer:** Francis Ford Coppola, Julie Costanzo, Dan Halsted
- **Cast:** Kirsten Dunst as Lux Lisbon; Josh Hartnett as Trip Fontaine; James Woods as Mr. Lisbon; Kathleen Turner as Mrs. Lisbon; Michael Paré as Adult Trip Fontaine; A.J. Cook as Mary Lisbon; Hanna R. Hall as Cecilia Lisbon; Leslie Hayman as Therese Lisbon
- **Runtime:** 1h 37m
- **Certificate (MPA):** R
- **Release (the US):** 19 May 2000
- **Genres:** Drama, Romance
- **Also in:** [Films where the soundtrack is the real star](https://film.one/collections/soundtrack-is-the-star.md)
- **Budget:** $6 million
- **Box office:** $10 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kDcCGlaBwY

## Where to watch in the US

- Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd
- Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy $4.99, hd
- Apple TV: buy $4.99, hd

*Checked 2026-09-14.*

Also available in: AR, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CL, CO, CZ, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HR, HU, IE, IN, IT, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PL, PT, RO, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Picnic at Hanging Rock* (1975), Fi1m 88: Another community watches young women and mistakes speculation for understanding. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/picnic-at-hanging-rock.md)
- *Mustang* (2015), Fi1m 84: Five sisters face family control, with more anger and less nostalgic distance. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/mustang.md)
- *The Spirit of the Beehive* (1973), Fi1m 87: Childhood confusion and adult silence, observed with patience and unsettling tenderness. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-spirit-of-the-beehive.md)
- *Ghost World* (2001), Fi1m 84: A sharper comic view of girls resisting the lives adults expect. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/ghost-world.md)
- *The Quiet Girl* (2022), Fi1m 84: A withdrawn child’s feelings emerge through small acts of care. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-quiet-girl.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-virgin-suicides