By Todd Garbarini
In the experience of moviegoers, there
are films that possess characters we come to care about, characters whom we
wish would make different choices by the film’s end. Inevitably, there are films that end badly
for those characters and even after repeated viewings we still wish that the
film would end positively in their favor. One such film is the 1994 New Zealand outing Heavenly Creatures, directed by a then-still-unknown Peter Jackson. Anyone who has seen Mr. Jackson's early work
– specifically Bad Taste (1987), Meet the Feebles (1989), and Braindead (1992) – cannot help but
wonder how in the world he managed to score the director’s chair for the film
versions of J.R.R. Tolkien’s massive epic about hobbits and Middle Earth. Mr. Jackson’s first three films, while highly
entertaining, are exercises in excess and were not embraced by the masses but
have all since developed cult followings. The positive reception of Braindead
was instrumental in getting his next and fourth film fast-tracked and in front of
the cameras in early 1993. At this
point, Mr. Jackson had developed a certain look and feel to his films that
managed to carry over into his next and most ambitious project. In my humble opinion, and without taking
anything away from The Lord of the Rings
trilogy, Heavenly Creatures stands as
the finest film that Mr. Jackson has made to date. Beautifully scored by Peter Dasent and
peppered with operatic cues, it is a film of such complexity, such visual
wonder, such sheer cinematic style, and is so self-assured that it easily
warrants repeated viewings. There are
films that we all see and we go on with our lives without thinking twice about,
and then there are films that we experience and find ourselves changed by. Heavenly
Creatures falls into the latter camp, and this truth cannot help but be overshadowed
by the fact that Heavenly Creatures,
while being truly awe-inspiring, is loosely based upon the true story of a
heinous and unfathomable case of premeditated matricide.