Product: To Die For (1995)
Rating: 5.0
To Die For
"To Die For" features the same character we've seen in hundreds of movies before. A character that is deceitful, stupid, gullible, at times smart, and has delusions of grandeur. The difference between all those movies and this one, is that this movie is told like a documentary, is darkly humorous, and is one of Gus Van Sant's best films. The movie stars Oscar Winner Nicole Kidman (Best Actress, The Hours) as Suzanne Stone, who has apparently done something really bad. Through several interviews (which cut in with the actual events) we slowly learn what took place. Suzanne gets married to Larry Marretto (Matt Dillon) and gets a job at a Weather Station. Suzanne has one dream, one aspiration...To be on a big network television show. And she'll stop at nothing to get what she wants. Anyway, while filming a documentary called "Teens Speak Out" she meets Jimmy (Joaquin Phoenix), Russel (Casey Affleck), and Lydia (Alison Folland) who are all used as ploys by Suzanne to get what she wants. She seduces both Jimmy and Lydia (Jimmy with sex and Lydia with friendship) and when you have two idiotic un-social people being seduced by a beautiful blonde newsreporter...You can pretty much see what's going to happen for the rest of the movie. I have to admit, this movie is smart for a film in it's respective genre. It uses every cliche invented, you can see what's going to happen a mile away. But Kidman, Dillon, Phoenix, and Affleck are so charming(ly evil, at times) that I couldn't help respecting this movie. I have to say the only fault of the film is that the cover is just as misleading as Suzanne is. Looking at the cover you'd expect a movie chock full of Nicole Kidman naked. Truth is, there isn't any nudity in this film at all. There's sexual situations and a couple scenes that flash by for roughly 2 seconds and are shot from above, but that's as far as it goes. Anyway, what I'm getting at is...Gus Van Sant fans should be pleased.GRADE: A