Product: To Die For (1995)
Rating: 3.0
* * * 1/2 Good, but not quite as good as I remember
When I saw this in 1995 it had more of an impact on me. I don't know if that's because I had seen fewer films, the seamy world it depicts has come even more commonplace (and thus less shocking) or what, but this bold and edgy film now has a somewhat conventional feel. I still love the ending, the closing shot, beautiful in its poetic justice and its use of visual metaphor (what film is all about, after all), but instead of savaging the TV news industry, this movie just slaps it on the bottom a little.There's also a problem they couldn't foresee in 1995, at least in my eyes, and that is that being on TV has lost some of its allure, thanks to a chronically-shrinking audience and the newer fame of blogs, webcasts, podcasts, and everything else out there. Once America's royalty, TV personalities are now more like cogs in the big corporate wheel--well-paid and well-tended cogs, but cogs to some extent. It is possible today for someone to get on the air in a top five market like San Francisco rather quickly--gone are the days of long apprenticeship, of starting out your career in Buttfuque Iowa--or Little Hope, New Hampshire.But that's where Suzanne Stone begins her journey into television. What I couldn't help but wonder, after about half the movie, was why she didn't try to move on, to a bigger city and a better station. Doing the weather live for six months, lame as it is, and her documentary tape, would be enough to land her a job at a small or even mid-market station.But maybe I'm being too analytical, and should look at the movie on its own terms. The satire itself is sharp at times, but after roughly halfway it turns into just another seamy murder movie. And, perhaps more importantly, I couldn't decide if filmmaker Gus Van Sant wanted us to feel sorrow or contempt for the three wasted teenagers whom Suzanne enlists to help her carry out her deed. They are maybe painted a bit too broadly, without any sense that the filmmaker or the screenwriter (Buck "Get Smart" Henry) have much insight into their dead-end plight. The way Suzanne turns from understanding friend to cold-hearted mastermind is well-done by Kidman, and the kids, especially Alison Folland, are good actors. Still, something about the whole thing felt just a little too trite, too simple.Kidman is terrific as the scheming reporter, with limited talent but boundless ambition. How an Aussie can consistently play better middle-America characters than most American actresses is amazing--or maybe not. Illeana Douglas is deliciously quirky and believable in her role. A lot of the dialogue is very sharp, and the quick-cutting, multiple POV technique, which could have become confusing in less sure hands, here clarifies and sharpens the story. I just wish they'd pushed it even further than they did--at some point it stops feeling like a biting satire and starts feeling like an episode of Law & Order. To Die For is definitely worth watching, but it's not the searing indictment it could have been. Transfer to DVD is sharp and crisp. No extras except for a trailer.