Product: To Die For (1995)
Rating: 4.0
The Perfect Psychpath
Nicole Kidman plays the perfect psychopath in TO DIE FOR. The psychopath is the one area of psychology that no one has a cure for. Psychopaths lack moral impulse. They not only don't have the vaguest idea of what right and wrong mean, but they also don't understand why other people can get all exercised about violations of right and wrong. Kidman in the movie doesn't murder because it's calculated and she can get away with it; she doesn't even think that far ahead. And that's what makes acting a role like this so blamed difficult. Kidman pulls it off in what I regard as one of the two greatest bravura female acting performances in the past quarter century. (The other is Kate Nelligan in the 1981 movie, EYE OF THE NEEDLE.) If only the screenplay were up to Kidman's level, it would shake five stars out of me. There's a little too much fussing about with the teenagers, and some scenes last too long. A good editing job could have trimmed ten or fifteen minutes out of this movie and made it one of Hollywood's all=time best. But, given what we have, if you watch it only for Kidman's incredible, incredible performance, you'll get a lot more than your money's worth.