Based on a true story, in early 1950s New Zealand two teenagers (Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet) form an unhealthy, magnetically drawn relationship where they construct a mutually shared fantasy world which culminates in the stoning death of one of their mothers. Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures is a seriously funny and fantastical film in light of the more serious, delicate, and morbid matters at hand, all of which would not have worked if not for the adept performances of Lynskey and Winslet, the latter making her big screen debut.
*** ½ out of ****
