To Die For
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Movie Reviews of To Die For
Movie Review: The Perfect Film for a Celebrity-Obsessed Culture
Summary: 5 Stars
"To Die For" is a great little gem of a movie that, in my opinion, ranks as one of the best dark comedies of the last decade. Nicole Kidman, in what is probably her finest performance to date, is stunning as Suzanne "Stone" - her real name is Maretto - a completely self-absorbed, amoral, and utterly ruthless young woman who will let nothing stand in the way of her obtaining her goal of being a "television star". The film is shot in the style of a slightly wacky TV documentary, which only adds to the fun, as we see the "post-tragedy" interviews with those who were involved with the late Miss Stone. Stone is an attractive but cold-blooded blonde in a small New England town who is desperate to become a national celebrity on a national TV News Network. As proof of her warped psyche, she tells the audience "You're a nobody if you're not on TV" - which unfortunately does seem to accurately describe the feelings of many people these days. She's also determined to move up the social ladder in her little town, and so as the film begins she seduces and marries the handsome quarterback of the high school football team (Matt Dillon), the most popular boy in town. Dillon's sister despises Suzanne and sees right through her facade, but Dillon is so entranced he doesn't listen. Dillon goes on to work in his father's pizzeria, but Suzanne obtains a job as the weather forecaster for the local rinky-dink TV station, and begins to have dreams of glory. One of the darkly funny aspects of this film is that for all of Suzanne's scheming and ruthlessness she's not very bright, and her attempts to sound and act "sophisticated" are often hilariously inept. When her faithful but old-fashioned hubby tells her to quit her job and help him with the family business, she decides he's "impeding" her career and that she'll have to kill him. So she seduces an underage teenage geek (hilariously played by a very young Joaquin Phoenix), has a torrid sexual affair with him, and then convinces him to murder her hubby. At first she uses the shock of the murder to obtain further publicity - "you've got to think of your career first" - from the local and state media. Unfortunately, her underage love affair is discovered and she is ruined. Ever undaunted, she begins plotting her comeback, but Dillon's family (they are Italian), has a little surprise planned for their murderous in-law. Kidman's performance is dead-on - she plays Stone as a parody of the type of person who will do ANYTHING - even murder - to get on TV and become "somebody". The supporting cast is also excellent. The most troubling part of this film is that it was loosely based on a real story - an attractive New Hampshire schoolteacher who by most appearances had everything seduced a fifteen-year-old student and convinced him to kill her husband - apparently so she could leave her hometown and try to become "famous" in the big city. "To Die For" may seem like a delicious but improbable story - but it's really not all that far from today's news headlines. Ouch!Movie Review: The tabloid tale was never this funny
Summary: 5 Stars
Nicole Kidman in 1995 at last emerged from under the shadow of her husband Tom Cruise with this movie. If anyone ever doubted that she was just another pretty face, if she didn't have a smig of talent, this was the movie that launched her officially into critical and popular acclaim. I wonder if the real people it was based on had anything to say about it?
Nicole Kidman's character, Suzanne Stone Maretto, is based the antics of a New Hampshire woman in the early 1990s. Pamela Smart, like her counterpart on the opposite coast, Mark Kay Letourneau, was a teacher who had an affair with one of her students. As opposed to Letourneau's crime, having sex with a minor because she was in love with him, Smart manipulated her teenage lover to murder her husband. Smart was tired of her marriage. Suzanne, although portrayed as far more ambitious and having much more sophistication than Smart has, is equally unhappy with her marriage as she feels her husband is holding her back from her career wants in television. Taking three disadvantaged teenagers under her wing to film a documentary (as Smart did with an orange juice commerical project with her charges), Suzanne lures Jim, played with equal aplomb and skill by Joaquim Phoenix (who also emerged from under the shadow of his later brother, River), into her bed. Young, inexperienced, and with plenty of white trash around the edges, Jim and his two friends are brought into her plot to murder her husband. Once caught, Suzanne denies the whole thing.
The sense of comedy in this movie, however, is what made it. While one one hand it could have been a fleshed out version of the American Justice episode, it was made out to laugh at ourselves as well as the people it was about. The three kids are stupid, yet ernest in so many ways, and while they are trashy they did want acceptance from others. Her husband's family, in particular his sister Janice, is a conflict to hers and they hide a thin layer of resentment towards this atypical match for Larry. All the other characters (her coworkers at the TV station, the convention people she meets in Florida, etc.) are just as much fascinated by her as they are taking advantage of her. And Suzanne herself. Cold, calculating, and ambitious who won't let anyone stop her from getting to the top; yet, she is not all that bright and knows she has to use her body just as much to get the things she wants.
Based on the outcome of the movie as well as the real events, I did leave me wondering what if. After all, Suzanne said it best. She said she is a professional person who comes from a good home and background, the three kids are trailer trash. Who do you think a jury's going to believe?
A great movie, ironic and sad and funny.
Movie Review: The Plotz Thickens
Summary: 5 Stars
If you like your humor smart, wicked, ironic, and served on a silver platter, this one's for you. Buck Henry wrote the screenplay, which should say plenty about the level of intelligence and sly wit at work here. Nicole Kidman gives the performance of a career as a woman who looks, acts, and dresses like a Barbie doll come to life. She has completely bought into the myth that, frankly, we all believe to one extent or another. That is, being on tv is a good thing and validates a person, makes that person more real than real. Her obsession to be a tv celebrity is like a narcotic for her.
Suzanne Stone lives in a fantasy land, imagining that her role as the weather lady on a local cable access tv station will somehow be a springboard for Babwa Wawa type notoriety. Watching her voracious, yet somehow sadly innocent, ambition is both funny and horrifying. Kidman plays it perfectly, never winking at the camera. The story, though based on actual events, is little more than a vehicle for many wonderful performances. Her husband, played with real comic skill by Matt Dillon, has to go, he's just in the way. The stoner, semi-goth high school students she enlists for the hit, including Joaquin Phoenix, are charmed and subservient, amazed that a celebrity would pay attention to them. (As we would be if Oprah asked us to wax her car, which we probably would, because we also believe that being on tv is a good and important thing.)
Other inspired performances include George Segal in a splendidly cynical cameo, succinctly summarizing tv business reality. Dan Hedaya, who must get his 5:00 shadow somewhere around 9:47 a.m., is just right as the guy who settles the score. But the real sleeper is Illeana Douglas, narrator and Ms. Stone's sister-in-law. She smells a rat long before anyone else, and her wise-acre sarcastic delivery is terrific, especially as she gracefully skates over the evidence. That's cold!
Van Sant is a very interesting director. Drugstore Cowboy was as fascinating as it was disturbing. Elephant offered an amazing look at Columbine through the other end of the lens. Finding Forrester, a tad trite and commercial, did have heart. Good Will Hunting, yikes, what did we do to deserve the twin monsters it loosed upon the landscape? Even Cowgirls Get The Blues, one of the best books ever becomes one of worst movies ever. My Own Private Idaho. This movie, featuring an unnerving performance by the late River Phoenix, was chilling, haunting, beautiful, and absolutely brilliant. Van Sant is certainly capable of greatness, and Kidman is also. In To Die For they are both at their absolute best.
Movie Review: Brilliant Dark Comedy of a Hyper-Ambitious Career Gal
Summary: 5 Stars
Funny, edgy, and tragic, Van Sant presents us with a brilliant portrayal of society's naked ambition and hunger for fame and notoriety. The movie was funnier and more satirical than the book. Kidman is great as Suzanne Maretto--she's evil incarnate disguised as a cute, perky blonde with a penchant for bright, sunny-colored, coordinated outfits and loud makeup. On the night Larry was killed is when we first see her wearing a dark color. Underneath the Barbie doll is a despicable, dastardly soul hungry to join the ranks of Barbara Walters and Connie Chung. At the same time, we know that Suzanne, for all her disturbed efforts, will never, ever make it in big-time broadcasting. She doesn't have the smarts or the savvy, but in her warped mind, she thinks it is her husband Larry that's holding her back. Kidman is especially brilliant when her Suzanne tries so hard to be professional when delivering the weather reports, but ends up sounding silly and amateurish. Kidman is also great during the cocktail scene with the dirty old network executive and his sycophants, because she makes Suzanne sounds so cluelessly stupid. Additionally, I am amazed at how well Kidman mastered the American accent. Joanquin Phoenix rivals Kidman's performance with his portrayal of the dim metalhead Jimmy Emmett, Suzanne's teenage loverboy and husband assasinator. Alison Folland is also superb as the overweight misfit Lydia Mertz, who is dazzled and bewitched by Suzanne. The movie format is that of a series of interviews of the main characters, tied together with continous commentary by Suzanne which turns out to be a video she is making for her interview with a big-time network executive. It is Suzanne's over-inflated ego and delusions of grandeur which renders her blind to evil in herself and in others; she fails to see that the bigwig network executive is a cold-blooded killer like herself. Joyce Maynard, the author, makes an Alfred Hitchcock-like cameo appearance in the film as well. For me, the most chilling part (no pun intended here) was seeing the frozen body of Suzanne underneath the ice in her little coral pink business suit and gold Monet jewelry. One of the most hilarious and telling scenes was the shot of Faye Stone (Suzanne's overshadowed sister) and Janice Maretto as bridesmaids in Suzanne's wedding. As Suzanne's bridal bouquet sails through the air, these two bridesmaids deliberately move away to avoid catching the flowers. Another fun scene was Janice Maretto skating blithely across the pond that has become Suzanne's tomb. She was the perfect character to end the film with, as she was the only one who immediately saw through Suzanne's cutesy facade.Movie Review: KIDMAN IS "TO DIE FOR" IN THIS BLOOD-CHILLING FILM...
Summary: 5 Stars
In To Die For Nicole Kidman delivers a magnificent, realistic performance as Suzanne Stone, a devious New Hampshire housewife who dreams of becoming the top TV personality in the world. As a beautiful, manipulative weather girl with a modicum of talent for the job, she uses her feminine wiles to reach her dreams of fame and glory. Unfortunately, she's also greedy and grasping, so she doesn't stop there.
Although I think this is a spoiler, other reviews, including Amazon's editorial review, have already mentioned that when her husband gets in the way of her plans, she tricks some gullible teenagers into murdering him. Joaquin Phoenix is superb in the role of the teen boy who is so infatuated with her he will do anything for her. Her sexual escapades with him in front of the other kids are shocking.
When I viewed this film it seemed like a drama/thriller with deadly consequences to me, so I was surprised to read that it's supposed to be a dark comedy. I generally enjoy satire and dark comedy, but I saw nothing funny about this movie. If, indeed, it's a dark comedy, then it's pitch black, IMO.
I did find the cold, hard, nonchalant attitude of the character portrayed by Kidman to be amusing at times--in a shake-your-head-in-bewilderment kind of way. That made me wonder how a person could ever become so calculating. She seemed to lack a conscience, so perhaps that explains it.
The only thing remotely comical in To Die For is Suzanne Stone's grandiose opinion of herself.
I should have had a clue that it was a satire when I read the name of the brilliant director Gus Van Sant on the credits; he's known for that type of movie and I think he's one of the most outstanding directors in Hollywood.
But no matter what they call this well-crafted, well-acted movie, Van Sant drew the best from all the actors. Matt Dillon was excellent in the role of the faithful husband, Joaquin Phoenix perfect in the part of the obsessed teenager and Kidman deserved the 1995 Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
This is a gripping, blood-chilling, fact-based movie, with so many twists and turns it will make your head spin. The surprise, satisfying ending is to die for!
Five stars all the way! I recommend it for adults.