About a week ago I finally finished reading The Virgin Suicides and then watched the movie. I know everyone says this, but the book was like a hundred times better.
Of course I also loved the movie. The actors were great and Sofia potrayed the whole vibe of the book really well. But they only went over the main events. I wish they went more in depth how Cecilias death impacted everyone, especially the family, or how the boys actually viewed them.
Like, the boys didn't really view them as real human beings, but more as objects or "dolls". For example, when they're all going to prom, the girls are gossiping about their neighbours and just being talkative in general, and the narrator says that they were surprised about that, because they seemed like everyone else (or something along those lines).
Or when after Cecilias death, the family completely stopped caring about their house, stopped going out and basically isolated themselves (or i guess only the parents did that, the girls were forced).
I also don't think that the movie potrayed the sisters' personalities very well. Cecilia didn't really have a huge role (besides her suicide) and even her sisters thought that she was strange, the "weirdo" of the family. Bonnie is the religious one, always with a rosary in her hand (she asked one of the boys during prom if he believed in god). Theresa - the smart one, had lots of academic potential. I honestly don't remember how Mary was like :( But Lux was potrayed the best (she was basically the main character). In the movie, they kind of talked about her promiscuity, but they didn't mention that her hypersexuality was a trauma response, or how she actually got pregnant. I'm kind of glad that they didn't show this in the movie because it def would've been romanticized, intentionally or not.
I think it would've been so cool if they showed how Mary and her parents were after Lux, Bonnie and Theresa killed themselves, like how after they sold the house they slept on the floor in sleeping bags, and how this reminded the dad when they first moved in and also had to "camp" in tents and stuff, and i just can't imagine how sad this scene would've been in the movie and like the contrast. In the beginning they're all together, happy and now they're only 3, last night in the house, there's this sadness and emptyness.
It would've also be cool if they mentioned that they're all committed suicide on the same day that Cecilia tried to (but failed) only a year later.
And also I really wish that in the movie they showed the altar that the sisters made for Cecilia
I don't really have anything more to add,so I guess this was just my review (or comparison) of TVS book and movie.
