Heavenly Creatures (Revisited)

Heavenly Creatures was the first film directed by Peter Jackson I ever watched, back in the early 90s when film versions of Tolkien were limited to Bakshi cartoons and every reviewer felt obligated to call him "cult horror director P.J." before marvelling said director had produced a film which wasn't horror at all. I think it might still be his best film - the LOTR films being an epic achievement which can't be seen independent from each other, let alone from the book they are based on. But Heavenly Creatures is its own film, based on real events and transforming them into a story that at different times is compelling, funny, sad and horrifying and refuses to come up with a single simple explanation for the event that it culminates in. It's that rare film which manages to make its two central characters understandable without excusing them, which largely, but not exclusively stays in their point of view yet gets across how increasingly distorted this pov becomes, or losing sight of the humanity of the other characters.

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