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4 Comparing the film to real life.
** How accurate was "Heavenly
Creatures" meant to be?
Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson have both stated that they intended the film to
portray known facts as accurately as possible.
** How accurate was it?
Overall, Walsh and Jackson did an exemplary job, especially in the dense way they
communicated cultural values and community attitudes. The physical locations and artifacts
and objects were all outstanding in their precision, as well. However, several important
plot simplifications were made, and some of these resulted in quite serious distortion of
important fact. A few characters and situations were made up. Of equal importance, the
filmmakers made some significant omissions of fact, inevitable when a story this
complicated is brought to the screen. However, their omissions actually have a significant
impact on the overall tone of the film, and on the impressions carried away concerning the
character of the girls' home lives, the nature of the girls' relationship and of other
important relationships, the possible motives for the murder, the chronology of the
planning of the murder and even about the murder itself. Although the film presents a
tight, consistent set of facts (which still carry enormous ambiguity) and it is an
outstanding effort, it is the omissions from the film which lead me to give it a grade of
B for accuracy.
