Heavenly Creatures
Dir: Peter Jackson
1994
****
Peter Jackson made a hell of a leap from Gory alien movie, to 'Muppet's gone bad' comedy to one of the best Zombie films of all time to serious drama. Heavenly Creatures isn't without it's horror or humour but it did show a different side to the already very capable director. Heavenly Creatures works for various different reasons, in that sense Jackson couldn't go wrong. Orchestrating it however took talent. The look of 1950s New Zealand was perfect, that only added to the authenticity of the real life events with locations and journal voice-overs directly from real diary entries. The script, again full of real life diary entries was alluring and intense, curious and funny, without it the film would never have been able to flow as it did. The films greatest asset though was the performances and relationship between the two lead girls played by Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet. Jackson's film may not have been a financial hit but to rate a film in that way would be a mistake as this is quite an overlooked piece of masterwork.