I remember when I saw the film in the theater, my wife and I really enjoyed it. But even walking out of the cinema after the credits had rolled, we overheard people lambasting the movie for being nonsensical. Then, reading various film reviewers' critiques of the picture, a pretty universal theme emerged: none of them thought the movie was 'realistic' because it didn't explain why the girls would commit suicide.

Me, I think Sofia Coppolla did a great job of showing us what was happening in the girls' lives while the imperfect narrators (the boys watching them from afar) remained clueless. I mean, really, was it so hard to understand? I didn't read a single review where the reviewer understood what was happening, and so all the reviews were negative. It's still weird to me that so many people just didn't get it.