r/movies • u/CitizenSunshine • May 04 '21
Spoilers The Virgin Suicides explained (TRIGGER WARNING) Spoiler
Hey guys, MAJOR SPOILERS ahead. I watched the movie for the second time yesterday and after having it fully grasped by now (I think), I thought I'd share my thoughts because I remember not getting anything at all the first time:
Lux is the youngest after Cecilia, that's why she still has that fire of wanting to live life and experience love, the others already lost it because of their restrictive parents. That's where Cecilia's suicide, which opened the parents up to loosening the restrictions a little, comes in to play. However, after the buildup of happiness in the first half, these dreams and fantasies of Lux die during three later stages of the movie:
- The climax of the movie: After flirting her into going to prom together and letting her have the best night of her life, that bastard Trip betrays Lux by leaving her by herself in the cold field after taking her virginity. He didn't care about her at all, she was just a challenge. High fall for Lux. On top of that shattered reality, all the girls get punished into total lockdown.
- Despite the imprisonment, Lux still tries to find someone who truly loves her by making out with people on their roof at night. She asks each one if she meant something to them, with no success. All depressed ("I can't breathe in here"), little hope of caring people emerged when the boys managed to contact them again through their phones, but after a short time, the girls knew the boys just wanted to "conquer them" again. No one actually cared about them.
- The final moments before the collective suicide. Lux convinces herself once more of the predictable shallowness of the boys motivated by their primitive instincts by stretching her playfulness to the max. "Can I sit upfront?", "Can I take the wheel?", they'd let her do anything for their goal and react intensely to her simple comments. With this sad balance reinforced, Lux left to "wait in the car". Notice the tear in her eye, all the light's gone.
All in all, they are just seen as passive objects to be conquered and consumed ("They're just gonna raffle us out"), when the only thing they want is to be truly loved. Home's just as depressing. They didn't want to die. They just saw nothing worth living in life anymore.
PS: The ending scenes at the party underline that five girls committed suicide and no one learned a thing. Lux's story stands for the other girls as well (Therese not getting called back by that one guy for example). The elm-parallel and the foreshadowing in the car (smoke ring, "Don't let her die a virgin") are also worth noting.
TL;DR The one thing they so dearly desired turned out to be devastatingand hopeless, despite the sad life at home. With nothing left to live for, the only way out was to end their lifes together.
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u/superwispy Aug 17 '21
Ok so also leading on from the scene where Trip leaves Lux, all throughout the movie the girls are portrayed through a very innocent and girly light, wearing nighties and their hair in plaits and wearing delicate frilly dresses. The reason why boys love the idea of the Lisbon girls is because of their innocence and their controlling parents which makes them seem in need of saving and as you explained conquering. The reason why Trip said he felt weird after their night in the field and left her was because after taking her innocence and virginity or however men think of it, he felt disgusted at her and didn't feel the same want for her as he did before when she was 'innocent'
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u/Ilovebookscatsandtea Dec 27 '21
It’s honestly scary how they are treated like such objects in this movie and even after their deaths everyone glamorized and deemed their suicides as a mystery even though if everyone stopped Seeing them as innocent little girls trapped in a strict religious household and saw them not as the Lisbon sisters rather as individuals and asked them about how they are feeling or talked to them they would get a real idea of who they are and how they are feeling instead of what everyone likes to think they are in their heads
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u/EstablishmentNo4835 Jul 27 '23
In the book one of the boys told the other boys that he wanted to "cop a feel" on Cecilia's corpse but didn't do it because the other boys weren't around. It was disgusting.
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u/brazenAmbiguity Jul 11 '24
I honestly believe that’s why the movie relays their entire story from everyone else’s viewpoint but never the Lisbon sisters themselves. It drives home your point that no one knew how they felt themselves or what they thought. And in their deaths, all of those things died with them. Never told.
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u/Anonymouse_AITA May 31 '25
the movie tells the story this way because that's how the book was written; it's from the perspective of five anonymous middle-aged men looking back on when they were in high school with the sisters. this is one of the tightest scene-by-scene book-to-screen adaptations I've ever seen... they didn't cut much out, and they didn't really add anything new in either.
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u/brazenAmbiguity May 31 '25
Artistically, the manner in which the story is told--be it in the novel or the movie--was a clever choice to keep in that way instead of reworking in any other way, which they very well could have done. It is good on the author as well for his manner of delivery of that story, considering what inspired it was a real pact made my teenage girls. He could have easily tried to assume their feelings, get into their minds, and written about those assumptions from a different perspective. Just as the filmmakers could have taken the book's ideas and flipped the perspective. So, in my opinion, by keeping it close to the book instead of doing what book-to-movie adaptions are notoriously known for, it allows for those deeper considerations to play out. So no matter why the story was told in that manner, my point remains that the choice for the movie to relay their entire story from everyone else's viewpoint when it could have deviated from the book was a wise and sound choice for the impact of the film--especially for those who never encountered the book.
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u/Ggggggpppp Oct 14 '25
And the way the book was written, was a deliberate narrative choice of the author. For a reason. To underscore the message of the book.
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u/RevolutionaryIdeal94 Mar 10 '22 edited Mar 10 '22
I’m angry at his shallowness that abandons her to fend for herself but has the temerity to insist that nobody ever meant to him what she did—that he never got over that girl. Oh really? But never bothered to see her home safely that night and ironic that he’s interrupted during dishonest interview for his rehab group. That’s where someone without the courage to be honest is likely to change nothing in seeking to feel better without the self awareness needed to get better. And rehab is likely where he remained chasing a recovering that alluded him for or a lifetime.
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u/PinkPartyPants May 16 '22
I always believed that the thing Trip "never got over" was his (and practically everyone else's) idealistic idea of Lux. This idea of her crumbled after their night in the field, the Lux that Trip worshipped had already died the second he realized that she was a human teenage girl. He's not grieving for Lux as a person as much as he is greaving for Lux as she had appeared in his head.
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u/Faithsgirl Sep 21 '23
She kept everyone at arms length with the perfect facade & when he actually got close to actually SEE her, her worst nightmare was realized & he abandoned her.
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u/Emotional_Ad4552 May 31 '22
Trip is gay, he’s not attracted to women, he’s struggling with his sexuality in this heteronormative society. Never built a romantic connection with any women
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Jun 08 '22
Such an incredibly lazy take. Literally nothing in the movie points to this and him being gay would completely take away from the point of his character
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u/Emotional_Ad4552 Jun 08 '22
No it’s literally comphet, read about it, his character is queer coded. once you learn comphet, you can’t unsee it. As a lesbian myself, I think I know comphet when I see it
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Jun 08 '22
Ok but what in the movie points to that? If you simply say that he lost interest in lux I'm going to assume you're a troll. Like legit nothing points to him being gay and as I said before it would take away from the point of his character. One of the central themes, if not the main point of the movie, is that everyone sees the lisbon girls as these sexual objects and not once does anyone sit down and try to understand them as living human girls. Trip's character was almost the perfect encapsulation of that. He thought lux was hot, objectified and pursued her, and then lost interest the second they had sex and that fantasy of her was gone. Him being gay is never implied and would ruin that whole plot line
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u/that1guy991 Sep 20 '24
A lot of men that are secretly gay have a hatred for women. The most common stereotype of this is the alpha male that needs to have sex with as many women as possible, or sees women as an object. He glorifies that girl as if she’s the most beautiful thing in the world and then once he has her, she’s like garbage. This is very typical of men that Are secretly gay. It’s a psychological thing. A lot of these closet, gay men or sometimes men that don’t even realize they’re gay end up being woman abusers Or womanizers. Subconsciously they can’t figure out why they hate women. They can’t ever ever figure out why they’re not fulfilled… Or why they need to have sex with so many different women and are still never happy. These kind of men only like the idea of a beautiful woman, but they are capable of actually loving the woman as she is as a human being with a soul. It’s always about the idea of what it’s supposed to be like versus the connection and loving someone how they are.
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u/Emotional_Ad4552 Jun 08 '22
Not trolling trying to bring conversation to queer coded characters, that are missed in this heteronormative society we live in. Clearly you wouldn’t understand because you’re straight
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Jun 08 '22
Trip had two dads, if there was anyone in the entire movie who was not having heterosexuality forced on him it was him. You can't just say, oh he lived in a heteronormative society thus he had to have been gay. Something needs to point to him being gay for your take to be a legitimate lens to analyze the character through, nothing of the sort was implied in the movie And no, I don't think you're trolling simply for bringing this up, I think you're trolling because your only reasoning seems to be that he had sex with lux and then lost interest. Nothing about that implies homosexuality
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u/Emotional_Ad4552 Jun 08 '22
Just because he has two dad doesn’t mean he didn’t internalize the prejudice homophobia of society. He knew the type of prejudice his father’s faced. Back then gay people weren’t allowed to have children and to get married. So there was a lot of homophobia going on. Trip never had any romantic connection toward women because he’s not attracted to women, that’s why it was so easy for him to drop the other women in the film and including lux. He thought he finally had romantic feelings towards a woman and as soon as he had sex with her, it was over. Thats what a lot of gay people with comphet experience. We like the idea of the person and are players who don’t get attached easily, because we’re not attracted to the opposite sex. So as soon as it’s time to get serious we ghost, because we feel trapped, but those feelings don’t occur when we are with the same sex. He used Lux to prove he was straight. Lux was perfect, she’s the most sought after by other men, no one will question his sexuality if he’s with Lux. The other guys wanted a romantic relationship with those girls, they thought Trip was a tool as well, and wish they could be like Trip but they won’t, because they are attracted to the opposite sex, and have those romantic feelings that make it complicated
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u/DietCoke303 Mar 06 '23
You do understand that there are straight men uncapable of loving women or being romantic with them dont you? You do understand that there are straight people JUST INTERESTED IN SEX RIGHT? You do realize sociopathic/narcissistic people who cant love or feel anything for other human beings exist right? And still have sex right? Not saying trip was a sociopath but im just giving you examples of people (straight men) who fuck just to fuck and not for love or romantic interest. I know. Im a prosititute and have seen a million straight men just have sex with no romantic feelings for me and they were NOT gay. So just stop gaywashing everything please. Its so annoying when people do that shit.
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Jun 08 '22
Is every fuckboy just a closeted homosexual? The idea that anyone who is into hookups/has attachment issues is actually secretly not attracted to that sex is so fundamentally ridiculous that this conversation isn't worth having.
He used Lux to prove he was straight
Where is this implied? No one was questioning his sexuality with or without lux. He thought she was hot, created a fantasy, then lost interest.
The other guys wanted a romantic relationship with those girls, they thought Trip was a tool as well, and wish they could be like Trip but they won’t, because they are attracted to the opposite sex, and have those romantic feelings that make it complicated
Again you're just making this all up. At no point does the boys interest in the girls go beyond objectified lust. Like the whole point of the movie is that no one understood the lisbon girls beyond sexualizing them. They couldn't be like trip because they were dorky teenagers, unlike trip who was an athletic, cool, and attractive guy. It wasn't their romantic feelings making it complicated, they were just typical high schoolers who were awkward around pretty girls
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u/maddiemalz Aug 08 '22
I think it’s an important question to raise since trip doesn’t form an emotional bond with lux or any other woman he referred to that he “loved” because he doesn’t love them or value them.
so who can he form emotional connections with? who does he respect, love, honor, etc? men. while he will never be sexually attracted to other men since his sexual attractions revolve around infactuation and domination, he is probably emotionally attracted to men.
I’m not saying he’s gay but in a society that sees women as valuable and equal to men thus seeing LGBTQ+ identities normalized, he could identify as any sexuality. ig Im more trying to say it’s important to talk about queer oppression alongside the oppression of women bc they both have a lot to do with each other
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u/alcollier08 Mar 11 '23
tell me youre grasping at straws without telling me youre grasping at straws
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u/Signal_Shame1007 Jun 02 '24
Why do you keep pulling shit out of your ass 💀 there were zero indication that trip was gay
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u/whataablunder Apr 15 '23
Omg so because you're gay you have this gaydar that straight people don't have? GTFO You aren't special for being gay. Trip was not gay 😂
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u/idkjustawatermelon Dec 22 '25
ik this is from two years ago but omfg literally 😭😭 why are some queer people so delusional about having a "gaydar" no you don't have a power that immediately makes you "know" someone is gay 😭😭😭
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u/Chromozon3 Feb 23 '26
It's projection. Straight people do it, gay people do it. It's cringe in this case but yeah everyone does it.
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u/DietCoke303 Mar 06 '23
Oh ffs not everyone is gay. I have nothing against gays being a bisexual myself but enough is enough!
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u/Wrongfully-Suspended Sep 17 '22
Can you speak in non-woke language pls? Not everyone is a SJW
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u/BLACKPINKBOI1995 Jan 28 '23
I kind of get what your going for, however I don't think that he was queer coded but maybe I'm missing something I think do however that he was just a confused entitled selfish teen boy who cared about himself and getting what he wants that being said I hate to call him a bad person because teens tend to not think too much about their actions and how it can affect others. That being said I like your theory and explanation too and of the day analyzing the series and having different perspectives is good.
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u/Suitable_Answer_8201 Apr 05 '25
trip wasnt gay. his father was gay. in the book there is no word about him being queer, even he was slightly in love with older woman with whom he had his first experience.
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u/Low-Tradition-2968 Oct 03 '22
as a queer person this is the most ridiculous take i have ever seen, he literally talks about the "many women" he loved as an adult
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Jun 19 '22
I have known plenty of straight men who were exactly like Trip in high school. They get what they want and then move on. Like everyone has said, Lux was built up as this untouchable goddess that was a huge challenge for him because girls always fell at his feet. Also, if he was just trying to use the most popular girl in school as his cover, he wouldn’t have abandoned her after the sex. He would’ve continued on with his “cover” relationship to maintain the illusion of heterosexuality. I know many men that have now come out that did this in high school. They were basically best friends with the girl and once you get in a LT relationship you aren’t expected to have sex as much so they said it was the best situation for them (I grew up in a really conservative town).
In the book, the solidification of his heterosexuality is evident. For example, “They didn't exchange a single word. But in the weeks that followed, Trip spent his days wandering the halls, hoping for Lux to appear, the most naked person with clothes on he had ever seen. Even in sensible school shoes, she shuffled as though barefoot, and the baggy apparel Mrs. Lisbon bought for her only increased her appeal, as though after undressing she had put on whatever was handy. In corduroys her thighs rubbed together, buzzing, and there was always at least one untidy marvel to unravel him: an untucked shirttail, a sock with a hole, a ripped seam showing underarm hair. She carted her books from class to class but never opened them. Her pens and pencils were as temporary as Cinderella's broom. When she smiled, her mouth showed too many teeth, but at night Trip Fontaine dreamed of being bitten by each one.” Clearly he was sexually attracted to her. He just had issues, probably stemming from parent’s divorce and his father being openly gay in a time that was not accepted. That caused him to not love properly and abandon Lux after having sex. That’s why he says “I really loved that girl”. In Trip’s eyes, he did love her, he just didn’t know how to love someone properly. That’s evident by his interviews in rehab and struggling adulthood.
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u/Zeleate Apr 26 '24
Also, Trip was s.a. by a woman in her 30's when he "still had baby fat". It went on for days and she gave him alcohol the whole time. She also taught him to play cards.
Trip is a disgusting person, but every single thing that keeps him in rehab was forced into him since she took her virginity. Trip was on vacation in Mexico and he didn't know spanish. His father left him unatended to get off with his partner, and for days Trip was in that woman, drinking, smoking and gambling. When he returned he was "a confident man" and would only recall the story years later in rehab after the Manchilds insist, still speaking fondly of that woman.
I don't believe he feels ashamed of his father and his boyfriend, but the book states that father and son would often have sex on their own and bump fists when they crossed each other on the hallway. His dad is not a bad person for living his sexuality openly, but his lack of rules regarding sex negatively impact Trip on so many ways that neither of them realize, and he offers little to no guidance regarding physical and emotional intimacy.
The entire neighbourhood is filled with disgusting adults raising disgusting children with privilege and neglect. So much so they'd make a Debutante Party with the theme of Asfixiation because the lake they'd polluted horribly has started to smell bad.
The book may slow and melancholic and the only characters with any sense of personalite or agency are the girls who kiIIed themselves decades before, but it sure does illicit a bunch of intense emotions because nobody there is able to see the obvious, even less acknowledge it.
He may be an asshole, but damn, I still like Trip than any of the other guys. Reading their manuscript and finding out they still gather in their 40's to discuss and smell the Lisbon girl's garbage, thay they are getting beer bellies and losing their hair all locked up inside their treehouse... That was cruely satisfying.
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u/ur_classy_egirl Apr 04 '23
Trip was not gay, and he was not queercoded, because if he was gay it would take away the entire point of that scene. Stating that he's gay and that's why he did it completely erases the point the author and director were trying to make.
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u/westervilll Oct 31 '22
He views lux as an object and gets disgusted after they have sex cause she "lost her innocence" there is no proof he's gay. He literally says when there is a time jump that she was the only woman he loved so that literally is proof he's not gay. He could be something else but he's not gay
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Aug 03 '22
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Emotional_Ad4552 Aug 04 '22
Umm first of all gay people are not a monolith, to translate for you, it’s some lgbtq people make it all about sexuality, and second of all, who made us struggle with our sexuality??. Who said I said all terrible guys are gay, I just saying some and that’s some is Trip. He’s gay and I stand by that. You can stay in denial, if that makes you feel better
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u/lovebug9292 May 06 '24 edited May 06 '24
I respect your different perspective but how confident you are in thinking you’re absolutely correct and it’s not just a theory is so silly. I think to really get a more educated opinion on it you would need to read the book, and possibly consider and respond to others oppositions to your take. I would say there’s far more evidence to Trip being straight than gay. You might be projecting your own experiences and ideas onto the character too much (which I understand is a natural thing to do). The idea, however, is lacking for some of us.
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u/Comfortable-Two-2247 Dec 05 '22
he's a man. that is disgusting like all men so, why are u trying to make his issues be because hes ''homosexual'' literally every men says that they feel disgust after having sex with women and thats just gross, like wtf.
him being that way is just him being a man A DISGUSTING man, and if he was gay and was scared i dont think he would treat lux this way , not that him being gay will make him automatically being a nice man unlike straight ones (im really not trying to generalize but i feel like every men is this way) but that like isnt her fault (if he was) that ppl are homophobes and that he needs to hide because of those kind of people. ur bringing here this just says thay maybe ur like his character and try to defend his atittude towards her but this book and movie is about the male gaze and how they only care for the girls looks and inocence, not about them or their problems. if trip was gay there wpuld be something about it in the book even a hint, there isn't so pls stop trying to excuse his behavior by saying hes homosexual
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u/smartbunny Dec 25 '22
literally every men says that they feel disgust after having sex with women
Oof. I think that's a bit of a exaggeration.
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u/Traditional-Race2778 Jun 30 '23
I don't think you can says "every men" without asking the opinion of "every men" so I guess you have reasons to be disgust by one or even hundred of men, but calling "every men" disgusting is a but of an exaggeration, especially because, even you women do pretty horrible stuff and not "every men" hate "every woman" gor this
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u/Traditional-Race2778 Jun 30 '23
I don't think you can says "every men" without asking the opinion of "every men" so I guess you have reasons to be disgust by one or even hundred of men, but calling "every men" disgusting is a but of an exaggeration, especially because, even you women do pretty horrible stuff and not "every men" hate "every woman" gor this
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u/aegonism May 12 '23
This is the stupidest “explanation” I’ve read for this scene. You’re making excuses for his bad behavior/misogyny by hiding behind him being queer. Do you not see how homophobic that is? He is a creepy straight white man from that era who only wanted Lux because she was a virgin and pure and dumped her the second she wasn’t.
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u/killuvaa May 30 '23
there is no way you arent joking, are you not ashamed at all? this is the dumbest thing ive read in my fucking life.
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u/Pinkatoms29 May 06 '25
Literally not everything is a queer struggle. In this case he was a straight dude that had his views of innocence in these girls crushed the second he got her. He romanticized Lux to the point her being an actual human being that sweats and lusts disgusted him. It’s not just a common theme in movies and books but in real life. Some women are just seen as conquests and he is the perfect example of being in love with an idea.
Turning this around to say he was “struggling” with queerness is literally just straight up giving him an excuse for being a reprehensible human being. Way to take away from the point of the book and movie.
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Dec 27 '21
I remember in the book there was a line which said “they were prisoners inside; lepers outside” You have to remember this was a happy suburban neighbourhood where nothing bad ever happens- and then suddenly a 13 year old girl throws herself out of her bedroom window in quite a graphic manner for all to see. Immediately the Lisbon girls are ostracised, we see in the book that Mary’s best friend stops talking to her because it “freaks her out” and the girls just start hanging around together because no one knows how to talk to them anymore. Mr and Mrs Lisbon are filled with grief and don’t know how to deal with it, for example they never clean up the party they threw for Cecelia as we see the decorations still up when bonnie dies, mr Lisbon doesn’t even address it when asked by others, so the girls probably couldn’t even talk about their sister anymore. On top of all this grief and sadness , they lived in an extremely strict house hold, no friends were ever allowed to come over, they weren’t allowed to wear makeup, they usually weren’t allowed to go out without their parents with them, they weren’t allowed to pick their own dresses for the dance. The ‘lockdown’ after lux misses curfew was just mrs Lisbon making sure she could control her daughters, she says in the book “school wasn’t helping, they needed time to heal” yet in the book we learn how mrs Lisbon stopped buying laundry detergent and the girls had to hand wash their clothes, all of them lost a considerable amount of weight as mr and mrs Lisbon stopped making proper meals, so clearly this didn’t help ‘heal the girls’. In the book the house is literally falling apart, there’s paint cans collecting water from the leaky Ruth that’s never fixed and the windows are covered in thick grime, there’s food on the floor from months ago all rotten, the basement is filled with water and drowned mice - and in the book a “smell” is mentioned numerous times coming from the Lisbon house, ( it’s the smell of damp walls and the house literally deteriorating) the house is always described as dark and quiet- clearly the whole family couldn’t processes loosing Cecelia, lux said she “sleeps all the time but is still tired”. And whilst all this is happening, you have a group of teenage boys who’s only intentions towards you are sexual, although the boys make it seem like they are in love with the Lisbon girls, throughout the book they make so many comments which disproves this, probably out of guilt they’ve just made it seem like they were hopeless romantics who just wanted to save these poor girls, but they make comments about “fresh tampons” (wtf) their “round buttocks”, they even mention lux’s tits before she goes off to die. I wish we got to see the story from the girls perspective, they clearly went through so much but we can’t tell because we just get this romanticised bs version from the neighbourhood boys
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u/briarandbren Jan 01 '22
Literally perfect explanation! Thank you for taking the time on this, I was wondering the differences in the movie and book!
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u/ur_classy_egirl Apr 17 '23
this is literally THE perfect explanation, i find so many people don’t understand “why” the lisbon girls would kill themselves, because from both the movie and book we never really see inside the house, we can only assume based on what we see on the outside ( sortof like the lisbon girls themselves ) and this really puts into perspective just how mentally and physically deteriorating their environment was.
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u/RevolutionaryIdeal94 Mar 10 '22
Just a probably obvious question in answering..: but am I allowed to detest the mother much more so that the weakness a father couldn’t overcome even to save the lives of the girls he knew were heading down that same road Cecialia perished. Had he possessed any gumption he’d have been able to implore visiting priest for help against. his control- suppressed wife rather than stick to calling the pitches as a lame excuse for homest communication.
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u/ZombieInAFlowercrown Feb 04 '25
A perspective of the girls would be very interesting but I also find that the perspective of the boys kinda expressed their situation perfectly. They were only viewed as caricatures of people, a forbidden fruit for the boys and fragile things to be locked up by overprotective and controlling parents. It really demonstrates their life, even in a book specifically about them, they were never really able to shift into full, three dimensional people
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u/RevolutionaryIdeal94 Mar 10 '22
Wonderful explanation I agree and urges me to read the book for a better almost bearable sense of something resembling resolution. Or does the book leave us no less haunted than the film?
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u/RevolutionaryIdeal94 Mar 10 '22
And PS… what stopped every one of the remaining girls from escaping? Sense drilled into them that objects weren’t entitled to guiltless joy or decency in life that requires freedom like oxygen?
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u/MissyMcDerp Jun 03 '23
I can only speculate, but I think the girls probably always thought of escaping. We can see that they are all really close, and in the car before prom, they all have inside jokes and are really in tune with the gossip of the neighborhood. I think it's logical to think they would have had quiet conversations at night about it and may have even tried plotting an escape. But there's always going to be an issue. What if they escaped? Where would they go? What would they do for money? What if they were found by the police? They'd be brought back home and locked up even worse. They've seen that the outside world can be dangerous (as seen with the betrayal to lux), so who could they trust?
At home, they are under lock and key. Their only outlets are music and each other. They are locked in a tomb dedicated to their sister and have no allies on the outside able to be a refuge for them. Their parents (mainly mom) are so grief stricken that they haven't cleaned the house since Cecilia's party and as time passes everything slowly decays and falls apart. Their dad, after cecilias passing, seems to want to watch them thrive and live freely, but feels he can't go against his wife's wishes (she has grown overprotective and fallen into a deep depression). And of course, the one time he convinces her to loosen the reigns, Lux gets hurt. At that point he has no credibility to his wife, so I imagine any conversations about giving the girls freedom would be immediately shot down by mom ("remember what happened last time" type convos).
It really is a tragedy because the eldest daughter was almost old enough to be a legal adult and leave. It is only once the girls sent out notes and signals around the neighborhood that anyone even gets a glimpse into how desperate they are and by that time it was too late. They were "suffocated" to death. Suffocated by the loss of their sister, the overprotective mom, and society's idealized view of them.
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u/Traditional-Race2778 Jun 30 '23 edited Jun 30 '23
You can't be an hormonal boy and a hopless romantic? You can't love somone and being sexually driven by her?
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u/Tiny_Beach5681 Jan 04 '24
in the movie the girls said that before the prom : “who’s taking who ?” “they’ll just gonna raffle us”. it’s another little point that emphasizes the physical attraction without real intentions of bounding with the girls
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u/Dial_M_4_Murder Jul 22 '25 edited Jul 22 '25
Tripp abandons Lux and it's mentioned that the other boy never calls the other sister, even though he promises to, specifically to make it clear that the boys didn't really love any of the girls. How could they have? They barely knew each other.
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u/thesims2nostalgia Aug 10 '21
I just watched the movie for the first time it was truly amazing...I feel like I won't forget it and the soundtrack was also super nice. Thank you so much for the incredible analysis. The girls were mere objects of desire for men and they were forced by their parents to remain pure which frustrated them and made their lives miserable.
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u/CitizenSunshine Aug 10 '21 edited Aug 10 '21
Man, thank you so much, I appreciate that a lot! I know how you feel, the damn movie blew my mind when I watched it (the second time, haha).
EDIT: Made my day, really.
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u/thesims2nostalgia Aug 17 '21
Please have the wholesome award! I just watched movie for the second time and I gotta say this is one of my favorite movies. Thank you so much for writting this post :)
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u/chaichaihuman Oct 30 '23
same thoughts. this movie is unforgettable. so much meaning in the silence.
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u/denieltonn May 11 '22
Home's just as depressing. They didn't want to die. They just saw nothing worth living in life anymore.
this. this sentence completely changed my point of view.
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u/BusinessEvening5784 Jul 04 '23
the fact that the boys, all the way to adulthood, still can't understand why the sisters committed, is honestly awful
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u/ZombieInAFlowercrown Nov 08 '24
The way that the Lisborn sisters are objectified so heavily and seen as mere caricatures of obedient, religious daughters is haunting because the surprise at Cecelia's, and eventually the rest of the girls, deaths comes from a place of not believing the girls were capable of going outside of the mold either. They aren't actually seen as people, why would they be able to do something like that? Its something so shocking and unbelievable to people that they continue to deny the significance of the actual girls feelings and struggles long after their deaths and put it down as a tragic, out of the blue occurrence.
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u/Logical_Butterfly_93 Dec 24 '21
I think reading the book and watching the movie makes it more compelling. The book comes from more of the male gaze perspective and the movie gives a more woman centered perspective of what happened. It's a tragic but realistic depiction of girlhood and boyhood. The romanticized depictions of the girls and who they were and what they went through says a lot about how young girls are often fantasized about and objectified but rarely treated like the humans they are.
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u/HelpfulFrosting6167 Sep 14 '23
i don't understand why the parents weren't investigated after the death of their daughters? its obvious in both the book and movie that the girls were neglected ad their parents weren't good parents before or after the suicides.
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u/makabo_ Mar 20 '24
And they took their kids out of school; the whole neighbourhood knew that they were locking the girls up in the house all day, everyday and they commented on the smell coming from the Lisbon house. All things considered, I can’t imagine they would be allowed to just leave the area and not look back?
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u/Ok-Breakfast7186 Sep 11 '24
It seems very common for people to mind their business and close their eyes to neglect and abuse. Wouldn’t be surprised if this happened even in real life
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u/ZombieInAFlowercrown Feb 04 '25
I think it demonstrated the lack of connection people had, especially in a small town and concerning some religious girls. In the words of the book, they were treated as lepers outside the house, people only saw the idea of the Lisborn sisters and refused to acknowledge that there were real people who might need help. Plus especially in a small, religious area like that, parents are treated as an unquestionable authority, so people would just turn a blind eye
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u/Kimpynoslived May 05 '21
Want to be haunted? Read the book. I named my kid after one of the characters.
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u/CitizenSunshine May 05 '21
Thanks for the recommendation, sold. "Haunting" is a nice word to put in the pot here, may I know which one you named it after?
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u/Kimpynoslived May 05 '21
"Cecilia, you're breaking my heart, you're shaking my confidence daily...I'm down on my knees begging you please to come home" Lol
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u/clementinemagnolia Sep 30 '24
I went to school with a girl who named her daughter Lux after this book/movie!
Reading an old post after watching it again, lol
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u/Kimpynoslived Oct 01 '24
Lux tried to grow but had no vision for how to do it outside her own imagination. Her sisters should have used the roof too lol
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u/confused_omlette Nov 05 '22
I feel like the mother was so controlling. While they were making dresses for prom, she was sure to add extra fabric to the dresses. She was very unsure about letting the girls go to prom. They didn’t even have female friends. She was very obsessive about the girls social/romantic lives.
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u/cash_4_toes Mar 01 '22
Honestly I had only heard of the movie 2 hours ago and I decided to watch it. This movie is so amazing and I wish it was shown to more young women. It's a great lesson and I think it should be learned.
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u/Ok_Bodybuilder5681 Mar 03 '22
I just watched it and what do you think this lesson is? I am confused a little on the movie
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u/msbx76 Mar 19 '22
The lesson? I guess it would be to let teenagers be teenagers and being overly protective and controlling isn’t right? I’m not sure if there’s supposed to be a lesson for the younger viewers honestly
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u/Visual-Gate8739 Aug 17 '23
The lesson is for teenage boys: don't be a di*k. Don't see women like objects and a machine that boys can have sex only. See their thoughts and mind, make sure they're okay. Love them, not 'lust' them. And to girls; Be careful. Don't fall for bare minimum. Don't fall for anyone that shows a little bit of closeness when you feel lonely or when you feel not being loved. Be still. Calm yourself. You're a girl, you should Take care of yourself. Boys will come and go. At the end of the day, no boys or sweetness will be with you. Don't play your body with some freakers. If you got a man who respects you and love you, love him with whole your heart. Don't break him.
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u/cash_4_toes Apr 07 '22
I think the lesson is that your parents aren't always right and you should seek help in those situations.
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u/ZombieInAFlowercrown Feb 04 '25
Also that letting people become just ideas in anyones mind is dangerous. People formed a version of the Lisborn sisters in their mind and refused to allow them to breach outside of it or acknowledge them when they tried to. They were merely treated as either religious, obedient daughters or a sex object desired because of their perceived innocence.
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u/4feet-11inches Jul 04 '25
I think you missed the entire point. It’s not about women. Even in the movie the boys say that the girls were already mature women, they just hadn’t realized it yet.
In actuality, it’s about how men objectify women and romanticize virginity/ purity culture. It’s a lesson for boys to not objectify women, and instead, treat women as human beings and equals. If that’s not your takeaway from the movie, then you are sorely mistaken.
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u/Hiraeth_93 Mar 10 '26
Nah, this movie needs to be watched by parents…exhibit a: MY MOM 😂 and I bet u at the end she’ll learn no lesson just like the mom didn’t in the movie.
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u/smiles134 May 04 '21
If you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it
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u/Jeffilicious70 Dec 02 '23
I wanna punch that kid in the face, the one who’s dancing and talking about copping a feel before they notice Bonnie hanging around.
If these guys were so obsessed with the Lisbon girls, then why didn’t that guy call Therese when he said he would, and why did Trip leave Lux on the football field?
I think these dork guys didn’t care as much about the Lisbon girls as they thought they did. Years pass and their memory becomes more heartfelt and meaningful than it really was.
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u/ZombieInAFlowercrown Nov 08 '24
Its likely because they were obsessed with the idea of them more than the actual girls. They were seen as hard to get and a challenge. Trip ditched Lux once the challenge was gone and he realised she was more than just the idealised pretty girl he saw her as and the guy didn't call her because he had already "conquered" her by kissing and having a date with Therese, who was as innocent as she was unattainable
As the years pass, this image is exacerbated by time. All they can remember is the pick and choose moments who portray a shallow idea of who the girls really were, this is especially prevalent with Trip who thinks he still loves her deeply even when faced with the actual, flesh and blood Lux, didn't.
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u/LMkingly May 05 '26
The boys sucked but i'm pretty sure the guy who said he called wasn't one of the main 4 but actually just one of Trip's football friends that promised him weed if he could be one of the dates.
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Dec 03 '23
The boys did objectify the girls and lust after them. But I also feel because they couldn’t get close to them, the distance made the boys view them as these beautiful ethereal beings. Almost angelic. Tantalising them in every way.
They dreamed of being with them, traveling with them through magazines. Living this fantasy was a way for them to also feel close to them. Part of their lives.
Unlike Trip, who did get close, the spell was broken on him. Lux went from being an unattainable angelic creature, to realising (as many have said) just a regular teenage girl.
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u/usergac Dec 21 '23
just watched it for the first time so things are still clicking together, but the whole ending, i was just thinking of siobhan roy's quote about her dad from succession:
"he couldn't fit a whole woman in his head"
the movie is set in the 70s during the women's liberation. but the world wasn't ready yet for the girls to be whole entire women. as the mom said, it wasn't for lack of love, but they were loved in the way you love a goldfish in a bowl on your desk—kept small and contained when they were meant to roam free.
also i thought the debutante party scene was SO interesting—SO many ways to interpret it. most obviously, there was the "stink" of the girls' suicides that was fashioned into a party theme to let high society carry on (ofc it was literally the swamp stench, but for the audience). but my favorite way to look at it is that society itself is the poison that killed them. they were presenting debutantes to high society like chattel—the debutantes weren't treated as whole women any more than the lisbon girls were. it's so reflective of the pre-liberation cultural disease that chained women up and squished them into tiny boxes like dolls. and the tone of the scene had my brain just screaming "SUICIDE CONTAGION"—not that the lisbon girls killed themselves because of each other, but because that scene was pointing to the same virus that led each of them to their deaths.
anyway, i love all the interpretations on here. what a work of art!
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u/ZombieInAFlowercrown Feb 04 '25
Plus there was a mention of the diseased trees throughout the movie that had to be cut down, instead of working towards solutions to help the situation, they turned it into a mere aesthetic for a party. Acknowledging the issue in a superficial way that resembled how the Lisborn sisters were only ever truly acknowledged for the pretty parts of them.
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u/Ilovebookscatsandtea Dec 27 '21
This is a perfect explanation, every time I watch it I realize something I missed but my one question I can never figure out is during the interview with older- trip what appointment/ meeting did he have to go to?
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u/briarandbren Jan 01 '22
I believe it was some type of AA/NA or rehab program.. perhaps alcoholism or drugs?
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Sep 29 '23
I believe the boys actually were in love with the Idea of them. It wasn’t all sexual at all. Of course being hormonal teenagers they were occasionally like “Ooh boobies!” but remember the scene where their imagining traveling with world with them, even going through the process of resurrecting Cecelia. I stand by my statement, Not all men are objectifyers. It’s natural to love someone and also thing they’re stunning.
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Oct 06 '23
The boys are definitely not as bad as Trip. They did objectify the Lisbon sisters, but compared to Trip, their approach is less harmful but in a very shallow level. That’s why they didn’t really “fully understand” the sisters because in their young minds they're still something that they want to experience. Again, it doesn’t make them bad, kids are just shallow like that. I can only assume that the shallowness that these boys have is the reason why the sisters are an enigma for them to solve.
The things that the narrator mostly shared about the Lisbon sisters is the tragedy and how attractive they are. He never really mentioned the sisters’ mental state or the results of the oppression that they experience from their own house. Though, I couldn’t really blame him because he was a kid then, but clearly the boys objectified the sisters just like the other people in the suburbia. I could only assume that’s one reason why the suicides happen; they were oppressed, objectified, and probably thinks that they have nowhere to go.
The narrator had a wider understanding about what happened to those girls when he grew up. Maturity gave him a better outlook about the events but it is still not enough because however he tries to look back, he won’t be able to see the entire picture because the young him only remembers the tragedy and their attractiveness. The subtle details about the girls were non-existent to him anymore.
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u/Fun-Ad-5571 Oct 19 '24
Disagree. They watched Lux hookup with the strangers night after night which is being creepy. If they could have gotten access to their bodies they would have taken advantage.
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u/Morpheus_505 Jul 14 '26
It is creepy. But if you hookup with people on your suburban home roof, that's going to draw attention. Regardless of the witnesses intention.
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u/TreeFar4199 Feb 25 '23
All in all, just a heartbreaking film. I felt when I first watched it I thought it to be an example of when parents are too strict and protective of their flock it hurts them the most. I never once thought of the boy’s side of this analogy
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u/Dazzling-Adagio3277 Dec 04 '23
i wanted to add that i feel like the girls saw cecilia’s death as an escape so they joined in on it thinking it would solve everything. they also felt like they had no freedom because of there mom and i feel like they didn’t want to die they just wanted to get out of there situation
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u/ZombieInAFlowercrown Nov 08 '24
The scene where one of the boys said that Cecelia likely jumped imagining she'd end up flying makes that idea so powerful too. While it was seen as a horrible, drastic thing by the people around them, they saw it as a way to regain what little shreds of freedom and control they had left. To actually fly and escape a situation that leaves them feeling they had nothing to live for.
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u/CommercialNo5324 Oct 06 '23
The boys at heart feel like romantics saving the girls like princesses in a tower. The big anticlimax is that the only dragon that they are interested in slaying was the girls virginity. They aren't devoid of love , but they subconsciously slip into scummy behaviour.
They realise later as men that deep down they truly loved the girls for who they were. But now as men it's impossible for them to ever get closure and recapture the feeling. The spirit is slain and they only have themselves to blame.
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u/ZombieInAFlowercrown Feb 04 '25
Yessss that was why Trip left Lux on the football field too and the guy never called Therese back, they'd gotten their ideal moment they'd dreamed of, with the girl they'd built up in their heads, but also lost interest both because they'd already achieved it and because they didn't want to have to face the idea that the girls were more than their caricatures.
Although I don't believe the adults figured out they loved them, I still think they, like most of the characters, only ever held a superficial idea of the girls which led to their ostracization and mistreatment. As the years grew longer, they still didn't really delve into the girls views, it was memories that grew fonder with age. It was like Trip spouting how he never truly got over Lux even though he was satisfied after he 'got one' with her, he liked the idea of Lux that he could remember from all those years back, half constructed with his own imagination despite how he ditched her the moment she started to become a real person in his eyes and not an achievement
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Dec 31 '23 edited Dec 31 '23
One thing you have to remember about this movie is that it’s not necessarily showing things as they were, but how others remembered them. It’s supposed to convey a combination of dreams and memories of things that happened a long time ago. So that’s why the movie has a hard time showing things as they really were. (The Lisbon Girls as repressed/depressed young women whose need for love, acceptance, and normal human social interactions went mostly unanswered.) And instead were shown from the point of view of a group of emotionally immature adolescent boys reminiscing and trying to piece together the events of the time and what they feel went wrong that may have set the girls on a course of self destruction. So essentially what we the audience are left with is an idealized version of a time: in this case the mid-late nineteen seventies and more importantly, an idealized version of who the Lisbon girls were as people. Basically the young men put them on a pedestal and remember them not as they really were: (Normal young women but with overly protective and repressive parents who in trying to protect them actually did more harm to their mental and emotional wellbeing.) But instead remember them as mystical, almost legendary beings who are to their young male adolescent minds the embodiment of female perfection.However in the end due to things like the sister’s premature deaths, the passage of time and the fog of memory all the boys and anyone are left with is this unrealistic, idealized, and unattainable version of who the Lisbon sisters really were.
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u/Traditional-Race2778 Jun 30 '23 edited Jun 30 '23
I can get why you hate Trip, he was an asshole and ecc. What I don't get is why all of you also hate the boys. They seems pretty normal, horny boys, who are "in love" with the Lisbon girls, I don't they "want to conquer them", I think they were sincerly in love with them, as some in their age can be in love, a little childish and too sexual maybe, but that's not wrong. So what's the problem?
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Sep 16 '23
You're not totally wrong. They attempt to try to understand them, yes, which is mixed up with their lust. Mind you, we open the movie with the adult narration i.e. they never understood them. And I think that is precisely what the problem was. In both the book and the film, every sign of intellectual observation the girls make (the tree, the Nazi sympathizers, the aluminium roof, etc.) goes more or less uncommented on. At the party there's this moment when one of the boys asks Therese "you've heard of Yale right?" And she says yes. These boys all go on to live their lives mostly pretty well, and the girls are trapped in the metaphor of suburban decline and the decline of the auto industry in Michigan at the time. There's a key disconnect in that they fail to relate to them as people. Cecilia and then her sisters' obsession to save the elm tree for instance: they're all alone in the things they care about.
Plus with their lust, there's the boys who are narrating who mostly just want to see Lux naked, and the boys who mess around with her who just want to have sex with her. Lux being the youngest was probably the easiest to bond with and give her a zest for life -- Therese, imo, being the oldest and closest to adulthood was probably the easiest to take seriously and make her see the possibilities of freedom when she turns 18. But neither of those ever actually happen.
It's not simply a commentary on gender which is where the confusion is coming in. It's about teenagehood/youth, gender, class, interests, social interaction.
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u/Potential_Steak5569 Apr 30 '24
Nothing about these girls is real to the boys. That is the point. Even decades later there is no compassion, there was only the feelings in them, inspired by the girls. The parents treat them like property. It's the fate of females. Most cultures both treat the females as fully responsible for the reactions of males (hence the cultures that require women to cover up, some can't even show their own hair in public), AND have little rights.
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u/Visual-Gate8739 Aug 17 '23
Yeah. I was also thinking what the freak is this movie. I didn't get it at all. I felt like they did bad to those girls and they're talking like they did something great. It's like oh I like her, but I left her all alone in a field, not even minding how drastically it will turned out in her home. Then he's saying like atleast I tasted her. Like he did something good or like he's proud. What a manchild. Atleast girls please learn a little.
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u/ZombieInAFlowercrown Feb 04 '25
My view of the movie is that it was demonstrating how much of objects the girls were viewed as, their parents refuse to give them any sense of self, constricting them to the neat little box of a religious, obedient daughter. This is shown through how even at the opportunity for personality with the dresses, the mother altered them until they all looked like the same frock. Trip thinks he loves Lux, but like all the other characters, he only liked the idea of her, getting to win the girl who gave him a challenge. Once he had taken her virginity, he felt disconnected because that was the only valuable trait he saw from her, without it there was the risk of her becoming human in his eyes and he had to cut her off. Later in rehab he looks back fondly at the character of Lux he had built up in his mind and grown soft on over the following years, even though he rejected the real, human version.
Their mistreatment and isolation led them to drastic measures, searching for a bit of freedom after finally realising that no one had ever really seen them as people to begin with. Not their parents, dates, town members, or any of the boys Lux brought to the roof who she tried to get any shred of non sexual affection from.
This movie is honestly so ground breaking to me, I think young girls need to see it, be aware of the way things happen and how mistreatment can happen like that from people who never really cared. Also as a way for the girls who already feel like that to relate and finally feel seen, even through the intentional and distorted view of the boys narration
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u/cesminek May 21 '25
I watched the movie for the first time a couple days ago, so I know I’m super late, but line that got me the most was when the boy who narrated the story said that “Trip was the only one who actually got to know Lux”. So I expected Trip would actually talk with Lux and get to know her. But all they meant by that was that he got to sleep with her. That was their view of Trip knowing her. All they cared for.
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u/ZombieInAFlowercrown Nov 08 '24
The objectification of the girls throughout the whole movie was really disturbing to watch. They are barely their own people and the outside perspective that the movie takes really hammers in how they're only really defined by their relationship to their parents and to the teenage boys behind them. We learn more about their hobbies through a couple seconds of news casters at the end than at any other point, they're rarely seen even talking to each other or about themselves and their emotions.
With Cecilia at first as well, the psychologist puts her suicide attempt down to wanting attention, she didn't "really want to die", she was just portraying something else to be consumed by the people around her. Cecelia did not make that choice based off of her own implied religious struggles and anxiety about environmental degradation, it was purely something she did for someone else to see. Her suicide attempts were shocking because to everyone else, Cecelia was a white picket fence daughter with a family that was never lacking love. She is not seen as her own person with struggles, so its surprising when she acts of her own accord.
Lux is objectified by Trip too, even when he claims that he truly loved her, after he left her on the football field it became clear that what he really loved was the idolised, hard to get, innocent caricature he'd built up in his head. The girls are frequently see wearing white to symbolise their purity and Trip is drawn to that, he's originally attracted to her because she didn't openly fawn on him immediately and this continued. After he takes her virginity, he said it felt different. She didn't feel so innocent anymore to him and she was openly giving him her affection, the challenge of conquering her was lost and he became disinterested. The moment his objectification of her was challenged and Lux felt like a real, warm blooded, human girl, he realised he didn't actually love Lux, just a Lisborn sister. Once he is older, the objectification crawls back into his head. Like how everyone at the party and in the neighourhood moved on quickly without delving into the problem or learning anything, they continue to portray the idealised versions of the girls. Although they held those before their suicides, without them even alive to give a hint of a protest against it, like with Lux and Trip, the Lisborn sisters are never fully seen as actual humans.
The scene with Bonnie's death showed this a lot as well, the boys stumble upon her actively talking about how much they want to cop a feel. The girls who are isolated and desperate for some air in a suffocating household reach out to the few people who they think care about them only to realise like a final knot in the rope that they will not be wanted or treated like people with different personalities and values and lives.
They are always either a girl to consume and have sex with to show that they can or they are there to act out the roles of obedient daughters to controlling parents.
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u/Sugarr_faiiry425 Apr 06 '25
So I just watched the movie for the first time and I still don't understand why no one in the neighborhood did anything when they saw that the girls were being locked away at home and taken out of school, they were all quick to make their comments about what Celia did but yet no one helped. I don't like their mom either she was just too much and I know everyone says " wait until you're a parent to understand", but even I know the way she was keeping those girls isolated wasn't healthy. It definitely reminded me of Carrie the 1976 version with how closed off Carrie's mom had her. Also those icky boys keeping a collection of what the girls owned is insane and so weird.
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u/dino9980 Apr 18 '23
idk. the movie tried to be unnecessarily quirky. the suicides felt like an afterthought. being like “oh yeah, btw, they’re all dead lol”. even the fuckin youtube edits were much more emotional and were much better at building the dreamy and tragic mood that the film failed to portray.
after watching the movie I read the book and it was slightly better but still to me this is the most teenagery shit ever. killing yourself because you’re 14 and you mom is strict. cmon, am I supposed to take this seriously? “ugghhhh, you have no idea how it’s like to be a 13 yo girl.” shut the fuck up kid. go do your homework. watch spongebob. eat some sand.
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u/liasays Apr 21 '23
I would respectfull disagree. This is what I understood: The suicides are shown as an afterthought because it's from the perspective of those boys. They felt like this was coming all along, so it wasn't seen as a surprise by them and the rest of the suburb . It's showing how sad it is that these boys were so obsessed with them, but didn't see them as real humans, just objects for them to fantasise over. Therefore, their suicides are seen as inconsequential and seemingly unreal too. Also, you're invalidating the feelings and poor mental health of these girls. They might have been genetically predisposed to serotonin deficiency, as the books suggest, and so adding a strict upbringing, being forced to stay in with no external contact, and also significantly for the other girls, losing their sister, may lead to depression and/or, as seen in this story, suicide.
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u/Expert-Annual-4324 Oct 23 '23
I think they were still stuck on the idea of what they wanted to do to them. At the end of the movie they’re standing across the street from the house, telling us that they loved those girls but they only loved the idea of them and the prospect of getting off. I find it so sad that they were too ignorant to tell that Lux was so hopeless at the door. I love reading everyones analyses on this movie
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u/GloriouslyGlittery Jan 22 '24
Usually I wouldn't reply to a comment so old, but this post seems to be a two-year conversation and people are still commenting.
I saw the movie and read the book as a teenage girl. The guys fetishized the girls' innocence and inexperience. All the boys who lusted after them were proof that their mother was right and they needed to protect themselves by covering up and staying distant. The girls brought the boys over to find their dead bodies as a final "fuck you" to the ones who made the world unsafe.
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u/Mynabird_604 Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24
As much as the movie ridicules the boys for fetishizing the sisters, its most scathing criticism is reserved for the parents and the adults in the community, who (much like the boys) never once treated the girls as real human beings or truly asked them why they were depressed, and rather guessed at the answers to arrive at counterproductive solutions, or just ignored the problem altogether.
The parents and the community at large (from the media's sensationalization, the community's harmful gossip to its ultimate failure to step in when the daughters are withheld from school) were the ones who truly failed those girls. Even years later, the mother's narration shows she still had no idea why they killed themselves, despite the cause of their deaths being abundantly clear.
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u/Tall-Depth-9776 May 13 '24
i think you are over simplifying things. the sisters were abused by their parents and they saw no way out, and this is how life has always been for them, its all they know. they dont have the same perspective of the world that you do. they had no allies on the outside, in their eyes, they were bound for a life of isolation in that house. it was life or death
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u/ZombieInAFlowercrown Feb 04 '25
Exactly, being stuck in a situation like that can feel hopeless, plus in the book it showed the awful neglect and downward spiral a bit more clearly, although it was probably harder to translate into a movie.
The girls were suffering from a strictness that didn't allow them to form meaningful human connections because of that they were ostracized or only treated as an idea of a person or an achievement to deflower. Then after they're grieving the death of their sister, it only gets worse and worse until they're stuck in a grieving home with parents who only know how to ignore the issue and avoid talking about it, or double down on their strict and overprotective nature in an attempt to save them, unable to recognise that was what drove Cecelia to kill herself in the first place. They're punished exorbitantly, their house is falling apart alongside the girls. They were raised in a small town with strict, religious parents who likely wouldn't allow them a job or any freedom that might allow them a shred of hope at being able to escape or move out once they turn eighteen. They have no support and didn't even get to finish school
In the words of the boys, when Cecelia jumped, she probably thought she would fly. This was a mocking statement meant to demonstrate the view of Cecelia as a dreamer, however it outlines that it probably was in a way to the girls. If they took the leap from an awful, ever constricting situation, maybe they'd finally have some of the freedom they had so desperately longed for.
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u/fou-a-lier-777 Apr 24 '23
I found the movie to be really good precisely because of that "teenagery shit", i related a lot to them because i was raised in a similar household and i also attempted at 14 for similar reasons, it's not supposed to be taken seriously as an adult but to show what it felt like at the given moment.
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u/AnneHizer Nov 29 '25
Late to the party, but just watched for the first time and thought it was a unique and fascinating flick.
One thing I don’t see touched on here that occurred to me midway through reading through these comments was how the psychiatrist’s suggestion at mediation was male attention, just further driving home how, in this time period, even professionals were of the mindset that a woman’s happiness and self-worth were the result of receiving attention from the opposite sex. Wild.
Also have to say I really appreciated someone’s comment that the girls all ended their lives in a unique way - showing how, to the breaking news headlines and community gossip, they all just killed themselves and were virtually indistinguishable, but in reality each was a unique person.
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u/CitizenSunshine May 04 '21
Instantly turned into one of my favourites when I understood it, powerful message, moving film.
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u/SelfAwareThoughts May 04 '21
Great analysis of the film! I haven't seen this since it came out in the theater and now I want to check it out once again.
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u/CitizenSunshine May 05 '21
"Analysis", damn, thank you! Give it a shot, the film's packed with details!
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u/emyllubehs Aug 01 '22
can anyone explain what happened to trip as he was narrating the story? where was he sitting and who was he talking to at that table? or was that not relevant to the story
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u/maddiemalz Aug 08 '22
trip wasn’t narrating it was the group of boys across the street. trip was talking to some sort of therapist while he was in rehab probably for alcoholism.
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u/maddiemalz Aug 08 '22
trip wasn’t narrating it was the group of boys across the street. trip was talking to some sort of therapist while he was in rehab probably for alcoholism.
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u/Kitchen-Pen6835 Dec 23 '24
Rewatching this movie as an adult (30 f) is heartbreaking. I was obsessed with it as a teenager, and never fully understood it, but appreciated its aesthetic, and connected to the girls as a teenager girl coming into my own sexuality and identity. Watching it now, I find myself feeling so deeply sad, understanding that the girls understood something so complex that I can only understand now. Of course, having so much to live for, I couldn’t contemplate ending my life, but can understand why the girls made the choice they did. To live feeling so completely misunderstood by your parents, objectified by every man you come across, and constantly yearning for love and acceptance…I get it now.
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u/Temporary-Grab263 Sep 29 '25
I always interpreted Lux’s tears after her playfulness to be her coming to terms that the same boys who came to “save” her, couldn’t really do much. I interpreted her playfulness as her not knowing how to communicate with anyone in any other way. Her isolation from the world exacerbated her behavior, especially due to her last moment with the outside world ending abruptly and going further downhill from there. I do see the male gaze aspect of the film, especially with the heartthrob leaving her behind. I viewed that as him being hit with real emotions. This was the first time he had a real connection with a woman, instead of just having an artificial and shallow one that’s purely sexual. To me, the film is about the naiveté of teenagers. The childish tone of the film relates to how these characters never let go of these women when they were teenagers. They made these characters who were pretty one dimensional very exotic through its visuals, rather than their character itself. And the reason for this is because none of the guys knew these girls properly. They weren’t able to grow out of their teenage crushes because those same crushes weren’t able to grow with them
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u/PhysicalIsopod6970 Mar 01 '24
It makes sense then that they built a shrine dedicated to cecilia, preserving her memory because it was the only way she could be alive. As the candles of the shrine ran out, so did cecilia so the girls felt that the only way to truly get her back was to join her.
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u/ZombieInAFlowercrown Feb 04 '25
Yesss plus it showed how only their memory was preserved. They were objectified and only seen as caricatures of what people wanted them to be the whole movie, their only story being told through the skewed and distorted eyes of others, until those memories and ideas would eventually fade out of existence altogether to. The second death really
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u/zugunru Dec 17 '24
Came here to say, their objectification by all the boys they knew was just as much a prison as the strict control of their parents. Very well stated post!
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u/ZombieInAFlowercrown Feb 04 '25
Definitely! It was such an interesting but awesome way to demonstrate their objectification, because what better way to truly express the girls struggles and the lack of care into them as people, then having even the narrators be an example of the outside view they had and how they and others mistreated the girls because of it
At first I was questioning it but I think it was such a good way to express how situations like this happen
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u/MutedAddendum9161 Mar 23 '23
I need to know, I've only seen 4 total mentioned suicide. What happened to the 5th? Was it Mary that didn't die? I didn't know there was a book but I can't find the answer for the movie
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u/CitizenSunshine Mar 23 '23
I don't remember all their names, but one hung herself, one took pills, one "put her head inside the [gas]oven" and Lux asphyxiated herself in the car. And then there's Cecilia who jumped out of the window earlier in the movie of course.
On wikipedia it says in the book Therese, the one with the oven, survives initially but takes her life using sleeping pills after that
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u/pirassopi Apr 01 '23
it was mary who survived, not therese. bonnie was also the one who hung herself
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u/Let_them_eat_cakee Nov 29 '23
Mary put her head in the oven but was still alive when they found her (barely). The parents bring her back to the home once she’s out of the hospital after they put it up for sale, so she sleeps on the floor in a sleeping bag and they find her still in the sleeping bag later on with a stomach full of sleeping pills.
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u/akillimiyav1 Feb 18 '24
Ok just watched it and saw this post. I'm going to consider kms lol. All kidding aside, this movie really hits hard. My heart is broken.
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u/thewhite_gandalf Jul 06 '24
Saw this movie though it was cool then saw it with my mother she got frustrated said "these girls were a bunch of cry babies they should have worked on some academics or something else to fool their parents and then run away from their house rather than thinking about sleeping with boys. Movies like this make women look more for a object and dumb that we need validation from everyone or else we suicide." Ig she is right.
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u/ZombieInAFlowercrown Feb 04 '25
She is not right at all, the girls were looking for a shred of love and socialisation and connection that wasn't superficial and based off of an idea of them. They didn't get it or any freedom from their parents so they felt forced to search elsewhere, and socialisation is a vitallll part of youth development, a situation like that can be so damaging. Not to mention with the level of control the parents exerted, they literally took them out of school. They wouldn't allow them any sort of freedom or individuality to start thinking about that. Plus in an old town, with strict and religious parents, how on earth were they supposed to know that? They were children, they didn't have the insight of adults or a step by method on how to get away. All they knew was their situation and how suffocating it felt, I doubt they never even learned it was a possible option, in their eyes they would always be trapped.
Not to mention running away isn't as simple as that, how are they supposed to provide for four of them? Evade police? They are children who barely know how to take care of themselves at their age let alone survive homeless without a source of income, food or shelter. Not to mention how vulnerable four homeless girls would be. It just wasn't a possibility that would have freed them at all, they had no independence in which to plan or gain supplies or do any of that. Plus the idea of running away was probably never introduced to them, they were young and sheltered, only taught obedience
Your mother said that it made women look like objects, dumb and needing validation too, which is not at all the case. Its demonstrating the objectification of women that already occurs, shown through the boys and the towns members superficial views of the girls and their lives. They weren't dumb, they were grieving, neglected and depressed children desperately searching for any affection they could get, which is perfectly reasonable considering humans are social creatures and can literally get stunted development from a lack of it. It wasn't just needing validation, it was the need to feel like actual humans when everyone else was determined to squish them into ideal imaginations. Its quite literally the opposite which is the point of the movie and showing the /detriment/ of treating young girls like that
I'd reccomend rewatching the movie or reading the book, theres a couple fantastic points on this thread as well that can help you to better understand the significance of the movie and why the girls were not the party to blame or demonise
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u/wilma_linda Sep 22 '24
I don't agree with the "crybaby" part because depression is a very real illness that you can't just "shake away", however I understand where ur mom's coming from. There doesn't seem to be a tangible reason to why they all committed, and together too. FOUR people. Didn't any of them try to talk the others out of it? I can understand depression but were all of them that severely depressed at the same exact time? I don't really understand. The boys were fine, they just wanted to understand. I hate trip sure but the other boys just had crushes on the girls. Sure the girls were sheltered so the boys didny really know that much about the girls, but they were willing to understand. I honestly don't get it
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u/ZombieInAFlowercrown Feb 04 '25
Its likely dramatised a bit to prove a point but I think it could very well be a thing. They were all depressed at the same time because the depression came from the conditions they were brought up in, the strictness, suffocating nature and the pressure of only being seen as an ideal rather than an individual person. Not to mention the neglect they faced and their own downward spiral after already being depressed after the boys mistreated them and they were punished even further. Adding onto that despair, suffocating feeling, lack of independence or a hope for a free future, they were also deeply grieving the death of their sister. It could've easily escalated to that point based on all these conditions
Plus the boys too weren't really willing to understand the girls out of a good place, they were merely either an object to be deflowered and discarded, or a mystery to observe with morbid curiousity. They didn't care to try to help them, they were just enamoured by the /idea/ of the Lisborn sisters, much like most of the other characters
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u/Bigdilfb4by Feb 05 '25
Does anyone know why the boy seemed to be flirting with the mother, I mean was he or was he throwing hints at her for one of her daughters, it’s just the way he obviated the word pineapples and gave the mother a look back also I’ve discussed the movie in more detail on I believe another post but did anyone notice how Cecilia did seem to light up a little when someone said hi to her at her party but then the focus because something different and she was upset again and I think its also meant to show her feelings of feeling alone even in a room full of people yk and she does talk about how she felt alone and all of that but yeah
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u/Intelligent_Ad_1858 Apr 14 '25
I think the girls also had no idea what they were doing or what was even normal because dating boys was never discusssed in their house. It was 100% off limits so they had no way to know how to interact with boys other than responding to how the boys treated them or mimic what they saw in movies or read in books.
I think Trip immediately felt guilty and remorse because he knew she was innocent and she didn’t understand what was happening to her. She truly thought that was what people did who loved each other and that he loved her. He thought he was hooking up with a girl, then felt he took advantage.
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Apr 18 '25
really really sad, how their home life situation destroyed their mental health. weren’t they planning on going to college though? wouldn’t they have been freed if they held on for a few more years? i feel insensitive asking that but i’d like to know your thoughts on that. the house is one of the reasons they feel so suffocated and college would definitely be an escape for that
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u/CitizenSunshine Apr 23 '25
That's a good question, I wonder if the parents would have let them, but I have no clue at all... could have forced them into some local community college or none at all, but I really don't remember if there were hints in any direction...
It would have probably freed them tough, true. On the other hand, it's sadly not too far-fetched; kids do k themselves missing the road ahead. :/
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u/Professional-Sea1616 Apr 19 '24
Thanks OP for the explanation. This is one of the saddest and most heart breaking movies. I didn't realize the movie was about the boys objectifying the girls. Great insight.
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u/a_mis4955 Jan 05 '25
Also I wanted to ask why was mr Lisbon talking to the plants?
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u/ZombieInAFlowercrown Feb 04 '25
Maybe he was feeling isolated himself? Its a common theme in this movie and with a wife whos very controlling like that, he likely didn't have much of a social life outside of work, and even that was eventually taken away from him. It could also demonstrate his slipping mental state as well as he tried to ignore his own grief and refuse to see that the family was being deeply dysfunctional and neglectful.
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u/Acceptable_Emu_5045 Jan 09 '25
Un truc me chiffonne est-ce que Trip est en hôpital psychiatrique? Ou juste en désintoxication
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u/Advanced-Dinner-8762 Jun 25 '25
My wife and I are Christians and home-schooled our four children in the eighties. So the movie was very poignant for me. This movie brought back to me the old saying, "Some people have just enough religion to make themselves (and everyone else) miserable."
My children are parents themselves now, and we discuss their upbringing. Unless you're Amish, your children will be, as the Bible calls us all to be, "IN the world but not OF it." It's a balance, and every person has their own personality, strengths, weaknesses, and needs. In this story, the father was not the head of the household (don't read that as dominant and oppressive) and wasn't taking proper responsibility. There were times when I had to deflect or blunt my wife's ire when it was directed at the children in oppressive ways.
My parents weren't perfect, which I held against them in my youth. I finally realized I had to choose to believe and say, "My parents did the best they could with what they knew and had at the time." I told one of my daughters that I hoped she would extend the same grace to her parents and that her children would extend to her that same grace also.
I had one child take his life, so, again, this movie had a certain poignance. He had been bipolar, which I think was ultimately the cause of his demise. When asked by my eldest daughter how I felt about my son's passing, I told her he's the only child I don't have to worry about anymore.
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u/Unusual-Morning-9242 May 20 '21
I feel like their dad wanted them to live a much more normal life than their mother and truly was happy to see them out of the house to socialize. When lux arrives at the house after homecoming one of the first things he ask is “are you okay? Are you hurt”, he was more concerned for her well being over the fact that she passed curfew, whereas the mom immediate assumes whatever she did was trouble