MovieChat Forums > Heavenly Creatures (1994) Discussion > Weren't they 'too old' to be playing pre...

Weren't they 'too old' to be playing pretend 24/7?!




I know they were supposed to be immature & unusual (and fun is for any age) but they played like little kids!


"I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus."
"Didn't he discover America?"
"Penfold, shush."

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well,since they were insane the normal rules wouldn't apply.

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I don't think so - it was a different time, and a different sort of innocence.

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A different time and innocence?!?

This happened not long after Word War II.

Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I

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the 50s were notorious for promoting a time of conformity and naivete.

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In the United States sure, but this takes place in New Zealand.

Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I

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I doubt it was much different.

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They murdered Pauline's mother. I think it's pretty clear that they weren't quite right in the head.

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Juliet Hulme in particular was immature for her age, with abandonment issues and excessive emotional displays. As mentioned in the film, she was all but deserted by her parents while very young, which really messed with her developmentally.

They were also both raised in homes with atypical family structures and plenty of secrets. Plenty to escape from into childish games and fantasy worlds!

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There's teens in this modern age who do fantasy role play. They're usually on the lower end of the social latter.

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Their pretend games, were born out of a need to express themselves creatively. Actors, filmmakers, writers etc, do this all the time. They were juvenile in their outlook and this was due to their age; but not in a creative\artistic sense.

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They closest modern-day equivalent is the kind of fangirls who write fan fiction - think of their "Fourth World" as a elaborate, imaginative, non-canonical Orson Welles/Mario Lanza RPF fanfic. So while I wouldn't call them normal, they weren't alone in their imaginative efforts, or in writing as a partnership.

And yes, there was a strong creative urge. One of them did grow up to be a prolific professional novelist, after all.



" Jack, you have debauched my sloth! "

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I always thought of it as a way to make up for how they didn't fit in with the real world. They were very creative, imaginative, and even unrealistic. They showed this to an extreme.

"Sell me this pen."

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They created an alternative universe together because they felt there was no place for them in the real world. This is why they were so devastated when threatened with separation--they really seemed to believe that their survival depended on each other and their keeping this fantasy world intact.

*****************************
In heaven everything is fine.

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They seem like normal 14-15 year old girls living in the 1950s.

The new home of Welcome to Planet Bob: http://kingofbob.blogspot.ca/

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A rich imagination usually means high intelligence, it has little to do which age. I'm sorry you feel like this.

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