Editing Heavenly Creatures (section)

=== Critical response ===
[[File:Peter Jackson SDCC 2014.jpg|thumb]]
[[File:Melanie Lynskey 2016 (cropped).jpg|thumb]]
[[File:KateWinsletByAndreaRaffin2011.jpg|thumb|Peter Jackson's direction, as well as Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet's performances (both on their feature film role debut), received praise.]]
'''''Heavenly Creatures''''' garnered wide critical praise with particular for its direction, screenplay and lead performances. Review aggregator [[Rotten Tomatoes]] gives the film a 95% score based on 108 reviews, with an average rating of 8.20/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Dark, stylish, and captivating, ''Heavenly Creatures'' signals both the auspicious debut of Kate Winslet and the arrival of Peter Jackson as more than just a cult director."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/heavenly_creatures|title=Heavenly Creatures|publisher=[[Fandango Media]]|work =[[Rotten Tomatoes]]|access-date=16 May 2023}}</ref> On [[Metacritic]], the film has a score of 86 out of 100 based on reviews from 31 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".<ref>{{cite web |title=Heavenly Creatures Reviews |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/heavenly-creatures |accessdate=8 April 2022 |website=[[Metacritic]] |publisher=[[Red Ventures]]}}</ref>

Nick Hyman, writing for [[Metacritic]], thought that 1994's Oscar-winning ''[[Forrest Gump]]'' was equally matched by "Memorable Film(s) Not Nominated for [[Academy Award for Best Picture|Best Picture]]", including ''Heavenly Creatures'', of which Hyman said, "Peter Jackson's masterful blend of fantastical visions and a heartbreaking real-life murder tragedy has arguably never been topped."<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.metacritic.com/feature/least-deserving-oscar-winners-and-snubs |last= Hyman |first= Nick |date= 22 February 2011 |title= The Least Deserving Best Picture Winners Since 1990 |publisher=[[CBS Interactive]] |work= [[Metacritic]]|access-date= 13 January 2015}}</ref>

[[Owen Gleiberman]], writing for ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'', gave the film a B+ and said, "Set in the early '50s, in the New Zealand village of Christchurch, this ripe hallucination of a movie – a rhapsody in purple – has been photographed in sun-drenched candy color that lends it the surreal clarity of a dream... There's something bracing about the way that ''Heavenly Creatures'' serves up its heroines' fantasies with literal-minded brute force." Gleiberman complains that Jackson never quite explains "why the two girls have metamorphosed into the '50s teenybop answer to [[Leopold and Loeb]]," yet concludes, "Still, if the pleasures of ''Heavenly Creatures'' remain defiantly on the surface, on that level the movie is a dazzler."<ref>{{cite magazine |url= http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,304607,00.html |author= Gleiberman, Owen |author-link= Owen Gleiberman |date= 25 November 1994 |title= ''Heavenly Creatures'' (1994) |magazine= [[Entertainment Weekly]] |access-date= 13 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090425133924/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,304607,00.html|archive-date=25 April 2009}}</ref>