Product: To Die For (1995)
Rating: 4.0
Hysterical and Wicked
"You're not anybody in America unless you're on TV," says the woman who thinks of herself as being "like Lady Di before she dropped the prince and went nudist." *To Die For* is Nicole Kidman's crossover film, taking her from "wife of" status, to a major A-list actress. The first time we meet her character, Suzanne Stone, loosely based on the real-life Pamela Smart, we are made aware that she is the most self-absorbed woman on earth. From offering unwanted beauty advice to her future sister-in-law (which includes the leading statement that Gorby would have done better in Russia "if he'd had that big purple thing taken off"), to admitting that she was like Jane Pauley ("but we don't have to struggle with the weight problem like she does"), we are served up a delicious character study of a conniving and deeply superficial young woman who will stop at nothing to achieve her dreams of international attention. Meeting Larry (Dillon), a handsome down-to-earth guy who falls hard for her, she takes him "from Van Halen to Jerry Vale," according to his sister Janice. Janice, who skates "the Peggy Lipton part in an ice skating tribute to the Mod Squad", provides the voiceover that tells the story. Life with Suzanne isn't quite as fairytale-ish as Larry planned it - when he brings up the subject of children, she cuts him off with, "If you wanted a babysitter you should have married Mary Poppins". Suzanne realizes the marriage is a mistake, but uses the opportunity to further herself. Dressed to kill and clawing her way to the top, Suzanne insinuates into the lives of three disenfranchised teens -- kids who would not be able to tell you what their aspirations were even if they knew what the word meant, whom she gratuitously practices her powers of manipulation on. "The road we chose to travel on was paved with many speedbumps," she tells them, as she involves them in her scheme to murder her husband. Besotted with this glamorous figure, the teens do as she commands. In one of the most hysterical scenes in any movie, Kidman's character has a record player brought to the funeral and she mourns to the song "All By Myself" in front of the assembled crowd. But, of course, over time, the close-knit group unravels and under ceaseless pressure from the authorities, they begin to crack. Alison Folland, as the young teen girl, has a heartbreaking and hilarious confrontation scene at the mall with her monstrous mentor, and she nails the character of the confused adolescent perfectly. Van Sant's direction is quirky and lively, and more than a bit sarcastic. In scenes such as the masturbation fantasy, and skating over the pond under which the body is frozen, Van Sant (*Drugstore Cowboy* and *Private Idaho*) is at his best visually and conceptually, and has created a complex and compelling film that sets forth immensely disturbing issues, but also manages to be a comedy that is both hysterical and wicked.