Virgin Suicides, The

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

Ethereal.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

It's hard to remember a film that mixes disparate, delicate ingredients with the subtlety and virtuosity of Sofia Coppola's brilliant The Virgin Suicides.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Possesses a tone that wobbles masterfully between whimsy, dread, affection and horror, building on rich performances and an understated showiness to cast a queer and tingly spell.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

Bewitching.

Film.com Elizabeth Weitzman

A lovely, luminous dream.

Film.com Gemma Files

Subtle, strange, off-putting, fascinating.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

(Coppola) connects with the essential purity of Eugenides' story, stripping it down to its bare essentials and cutting straight to everything that's wonderful about it.

Austin Chronicle Sarah Hepola

In an astonishingly assured film debut, Coppola captures the poetry and sweetness of Eugenides' novel without allowing any of the standard rites of passage -- first dates, high-school dances -- to feel trite.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

From start to finish there's a shimmer of discovery about it - our discovery of it, Coppola's discovery of how much she can do.

Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday

It gets under your skin and into your head, and you don't want it to leave.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

(Coppola) has the courage to play it in a minor key.

Chicago Tribune Marc Caro

It's quite funny, though not in a predictably irreverent way, and it moves along briskly - a little too briskly toward the end.

Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf

(Coppola) understands the crisp, oblique horror and wistfulness of Eugenides' narrative, plunking down five enchanting princesses into an environment that is anything but magical.

Village Voice Dennis Lim

Coppola looks beyond the seductive metaphysical puzzle and locates the core of Eugenides's allegory in an obsessive, almost forensic act of remembering, both futile and inexplicably essential.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Coppola gives Suicides a haunted quality that is undeniably affecting, a feeling intensified by a wonderfully funny and touching Dunst.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

There's a melancholy sweetness here, a gentle humor that speaks to the angst and awkwardness of girls turning into women, and the awe of boys watching the transformation from afar.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

An artful blend of '70s detail and dreamlike moodiness makes Coppola's first movie an exceptionally promising directorial debut.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Has a great deal of empathy for that excruciating limbo that is female adolescence.

USA Today Mike Clark

In contrast to big-screen bummers we see every week, this movie conveys genuine sorrow.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack

Coppola infuses her movie with a dreamy poetic tone, and deftly translates the essential metaphors of youth, sexuality and death without sacrificing an earthy humor.

Variety Emanuel Levy

Humor prevails throughout, but it doesn't deflate the disturbing elements of the tale, which miraculously manages to stay droll, heartfelt and poignant to the end.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Successfully venturesome, but you need to know that it's also a real downer.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

A very curious and eclectic piece of work--fresh even when it's awkward.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Glum and preposterous -- an operatically stilted adolescent martyr fantasy -- and yet, as staged by Coppola, it's well worth seeing.

TNT RoughCut Sarah Raskin

One major inappropriate casting decision (Kirsten Dunst, who's made a solid leap to young adulthood in "Dick" and "Drop Dead Gorgeous" is cast as 14-year-old Lux?) and an underdeveloped motive for the girls' self-demise left me unaffected.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

While not exactly a cop-out, Virgin may leave some viewers who crave traditional closure with the same hollow ache described by the narrator as follows: "What lingered after them was not life but the most trivial list of mundane facts."

TV Guide Ken Fox

The soundtrack (Heart, ELO, Todd Rundgren, and an original score by the French duo Air) is spot-on and the costume design (pukka shells and knee-socks) is hideously accurate.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Except perhaps for Lux, who, like The Virgin Suicides itself, is a hothouse flower perishing for want of sunshine and fresh air.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

While young Coppola is a pro with her camera, she'd be wise to brush up on her storytelling skills.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

A detective story without a solution and a coming-of-ager without discernable characters.

LA Weekly Ernest Hardy

Sofia Coppola, who's directed the film from her own screenplay, narrowly misses making the story work on the screen.