Great Character: Lux Lisbon (“The Virgin Suicides”)
The Great Character theme for the month: High School Characters. Today: Lux Lisbon from the 1999 movie The Virgin Suicides, screenplay by Sofia Coppola, novel by Jeffrey Eugenides.
The Lisbon sisters initially appear as typical Midwestern Michigan teenaged girls, each a year older and blonder than the last: Cecilia 13, Lux 14. Bonnie 15, Mary 16 and Therese 17.
NARRATOR: We knew the girls were really women in disguise, that they understood love, and even death, and that our job was merely to create the noise that seemed to fascinate them.
Their parents on the other hand are the awkwardly meek and socially withdrawn Mr. Lisbon (James Wood) and the hardline authoritative control freak Mrs. Lisbon (Kathleen Turner).
NARRATOR: No one could understand how Mrs. Lisbon and Mr. Lisbon, our math teacher, could produce such beautiful creatures.
But the “happy” and “normal” veneer of their family structure becomes punctured with the unexpected suicide of the youngest Lisbon daughter Cecilia. Then the domestic floodgates within the Lisbon home continue to crack as the sisters find their social lives micromanaged and monitored like a maximum-security penitentiary. The thin line between being caring parents and smothering dictators fuels a suffocating collapse within the family dynamic, with the charge for freedom led by the rebellious outbursts of Lux Lisbon (Kirstin Dunst).
The Virgin Suicides IMDB:
A group of male friends become obsessed with five mysterious sisters who are sheltered by their strict, religious parents.
Like a lost angel with her billowing wings stuck in the Lisbon’s front door, Lux illuminates the male version of high school heaven from afar, craved yet unattainable. To her pubescent neighbors Parkie, Chase, David and Tim, Lux is practically a silent enigma that flickers through their nocturnal dream space. Her solid gold locks, her innocent eyes and her guilty grimace merge as a flirtatious trifecta to tease, attract and tantalize. Even the high school heartthrob Trip Fontaine still admires her decades later.
ADULT TRIP FONTAINE: She was the still point of the turning world, man.
As an eager opportunist, the younger Trip Fontaine (Josh Hartnett) was definitely not a player for Team Abstinence that the title The Virgin Suicides refers to. But as he emerges as Lux’s not-so-secret admirer, Trip gets taken on a “trip” to Valentine Valley: population one, where Lux stands for luxury.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNTNZsOVRVk
In comparison to her sisters, Lux views herself outside of the claustrophobic confines of her parents care. They may mean well and may view her safety as their top priority, but as is the case with many people discovering their own sexuality for the first time, Lux turns into Lust. She gets caught with the garbage man Kevin’s name tagged onto her undergarments. She plays provocative footsies under the dinner table with the awe-struck guest Peter and openly entices male service workers. She even finds a way to blow the mind of the fast-forward lover Trip Fontaine with a kiss to rock his young little world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4Sywg8Yw4Q
If it wasn’t for Trip winning over his math instructor Mr. Lisbon with a chaperoned proposition to take Lux to the school dance with her sisters all paired up, Lux could have certainly been submerged into a dateless high school experience. The sweet taste of adult-less un-supervision sparks Lux’s true feelings and observations of the cold, calculated and stiff existence that she has grown to disregard.
LUX LISBON: Nice aluminum siding. Do they think that really looks good?
Lux has squeezed between the tight crevices of her parents stronghold to somehow develop a cigarette habit, and could care less what anyone thinks about it.
LUX LISBON: I’ll just tell him some kids we’re smoking in the bathroom.
Even Lux’s sister Bonnie gets Lux’s disobedient treatment seminar on how to round off the edges of being square.
LUX LISBON: Don’t be so goody-goody.
After breaking curfew because of some football field humping after the school dance with Trip, Lux’s actions lead her and the Lisbon siblings to lose all social privileges, including the ability to attend school. Now Lux brings the static friction and body heat to her roof by having multiple dudes consummate their acquaintance under the moonlight. But Lux’s desires and explorations unfortunately point towards one final escape route, with her four inquisitive male neighbors invited to ride along.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qEoK4PYN5I
For her effortless ability to manufacture attraction, her rocky road towards womanhood and for her heartbreaking ability to mask all that pain behind her beatific gaze — Lux Lisbon is an unforgettably GREAT CHARACTER in the high school realm.
Thank you, Jason, for this post. Please join us in comments to discuss The Virgin Suicides.
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