Lux Lisbon acts as the main character in the tale of the five sisters.

*Warning: This article contains spoilers and covers sensitive topics. Reader discretion is advised.

The Virgin Suicides follows the story of the five strictly parented Lisbon sisters of the 1970’s: Cecelia, age 13, Lux (14), Bonnie (15), Mary (16), and Therese (17). The movie is narrated by the adult version of one of the young boys from across the street, who claims to have been in love with the girls. He and his friends provide the perspective from which the story is told.

The movie begins with the attempted suicide of Cecelia Lisbon. During her stay at the hospital, she is questioned as to why she would do something like this. She responds with the sentence, “Obviously, doctor, you’ve never been a 13-year-old girl.” She leaves it at that, and we don’t get any further explanation because there is nothing else to be said. This quote is a personal favorite because it reveals the true meaning of the film to those who can see it.

Cecelia is questioned again by a psychiatrist, only to be dismissed and told she needs to socialize with boys her age. Her parents take this advice and tell the girls they are allowed to throw a small, supervised party. During the party, Cecelia asks to be excused so that she can go up to her room, where she attempts for the second time and succeeds. As I watched this unravel, I couldn’t help but empathize with the feeling of helplessness that the family must have been experiencing.

Following Cecelia’s death, the neighborhood boys note that the four remaining girls disappear for a short time to grieve, only to reappear at school as if nothing had happened. At first, this intrigues them, but they don’t seem to find any use in reading any further into it. They proceed with their romanticization of the beautiful blonde girls from across the street. The boys say they are in love with these girls and want to understand them, but in actuality, they are merely infatuated with the idea of them. It was so frustrating to see their pain brushed under the rug, yet so necessary to the overall message.

Throughout the movie, the boys note that Lux has many sexual encounters with the other guys at school. It upsets me that no one cared to look deeper into this because it’s very obviously a coping mechanism. Of her many partners, only one had the pleasure to “know” her. Trip Fontaine claims to have been madly in love with Lux from the moment he first saw her. He takes her to homecoming, where they have a great time. After the dance, Trip persuades Lux to stay the night with him out on the football field, despite her curfew. He then leaves her as she is sleeping and states that he “didn’t care how she got home,”  thus proving that his so-called “love” was anything but. This would be the last time he ever saw her.

The consequences of Lux’s disobedience prove to be far more severe than she had intended. Mrs. Lisbon removes the girls from school and places them under house arrest, even going so far as to force Lux to burn her rock records. This punishment essentially strips the girls of the things that once brought them happiness in their grief.

The neighborhood boys watch the girls through their windows every night and eventually receive a signal in Morse code through the lights. The message reads, “Help send Bobo.” It is speculated that the message was supposed to read “Help send popo,”  but the boys pay no further attention to this and continue to romanticize their communication with the girls. It is genuinely upsetting to watch their efforts be disregarded due to the boys’ ignorance.

Eventually, the sisters signal for the boys to sneak over at midnight. Lux greets them at the back door alone, with a cigarette in hand, and says that they should wait in the house for her sisters while she goes to the car. As the viewer, it is so painfully obvious that this was a cry for help, but as the boys wander downstairs, they talk about how amazing it will be to “feel them up.” Their minds were too set on having an adventure with the beautiful and mysterious Lisbon girls to see the truth.

That night, three of the sister’s bodies were found, all dead by apparent suicide. The boys flee the scene in fear, only to later find out that Lux had done the same during their absence. Despite their continued efforts to understand why the girls did it, they still cannot wrap their minds around what was right in front of them. The Lisbon sisters needed to be seen. They were trapped in their home, alone with their thoughts. They had no support after the death of their sister and had to scrape for a way to cope silently, while the only piece that their supposed saviors could comprehend was lust and obsession.

I loved this movie. It was full of so many hidden Easter eggs and required genuine thought to understand. I give The Virgin Suicides a 10/10.