Customer Reviews

To Die For (Widescreen/Full Screen)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Suzanne Stone (Nicole Kidman) will do anything to be the next Barbara Walters. She starts out as a small town weather girl and makes a TV documentary with some high school students, while hatching a diabolical scheme to kill her husband (Matt Dillon) whose ambitions don't match her own.

Loosely based on the true story of Pamela Wojas Smart, this movie is a clever comedy focusing on the blind ambition of Kidman's character. She plays her as an outwardly dumb blonde who is, in fact, ruthless and willing to do anything to be famous. Joaquin Phoenix plays Stone's teenage lover who blindly carries out her plan. He's quite young-looking and completely believable as the adolescent pawn in her deadly chess game.

The story is filmed like a documentary, in keeping with Suzanne's goal of being a celebrated interviewer. Having the characters speak into the camera reduced the tension but increased the humor, as most of the people involved were completely gullible and fell under Suzanne's spell. It's a macabre story played mostly for laughs with good acting all around.

Lately I have been revisiting old favorite films, perhaps to see if they are as good as I recall. And this one, To Die For (Widescreen/Full Screen), with Nicole Kidman as Suzanne Stone, the self-obsessed ambitious TV personality - actually, a "weather person" for a cable station - whose blind drive leads her down a very dark path, is every bit as good as I remember.

Based on the novel by Joyce Maynard - who, incidentally, plays the lawyer in the film - we learn of a beautiful young woman's quest for a life in front of the television camera; despite her limitations, she imagines herself as the next Barbara Walters.

When she marries a young Italian-American musician, (played by Matt Dillon), whose parents own a restaurant, and who sets aside his dreams to become someone she envisions as an appropriate husband - an insurance salesman - he hopes there will be trade-offs for him. He constantly brings up his desire for a family. But his wife only cares about her own career, her little dog, and the condo they own.

When Suzanne embarks on a "project" with teenagers at the local school - New Hope, New Hampshire - she believes that the documentary will propel her into big-time journalism. The teenagers, however, with their serious limitations, soon are manipulated into the midst of a nefarious plot. And nothing will ever be the same again.

The teen boys - played by Joaquin Phoenix and Casey Affleck - are convincingly cast as the mentally and emotionally challenged pawns.

Gus Van Sant directs, with his usual brilliance; the film was just as haunting this time around and well worth a visit (or revisit).

Laurel-Rain Snow
Author of:
Web of Tyranny, etc.

This movie is not bad but it's not that great either. I always like Nicole Kidman, with or without Tom Cruise. But what I really like about this movie is Joaquin Phoenix' acting. Call me at 156-38-3461.

This film really misses its mark. Billed as a black comedy, it fails to deliver any satirical bite whatsoever. Suzanne Stone's frequent video segments where she speaks directly to the camera and the flashforwards to some sort of Jerry Springer-like show are painful to watch. Yeah, Nicole Kidman is extremely sexy (duh), but it's not nearly enough to overcome her marginal acting, the clumsy dialog and the amateurish direction.

See this movie for all the humor of "Dying Young" coupled with the social commentary of a SpongeBob episode.

Nothing like a little dark humor and feminine fangs to make a mash of the culture driven by 15-minutes-of-fame. In this case, a riveting Nicole Kidman as a perky, self-obsessed suburban nutcase who has big dreams of finding fame and fortune, even at the expense of her husband.

Directed by Gus Van Sant in his usual cobbled-together manner (hoary, quasi-documentary devices to propel the screenplay, regular flashbacks, direct-to-the-camera diction, etc..) based on Buck Henry's trippy adaptation of a novel by the same name. The result is a pleasantly watchable movie that moves quickly and keeps you guessing the limits to which our protagonist would limp to achieve her ambitious goals.

I felt that the premise, beyond its chirpy surface, is quite thought-provoking. If our perky weather reporter were to be successful in her quest then we could believe that total dedication to a quest is admirable and ultimately rewarded -- regardless of the means employed. Can we condone murder though? Perhaps we are offered a tongue-in-cheek hyperbole that extremes are necessary if we are to escape our station in life.

This movie apart from amusing you will surely leave you with something to savor, not just off its theme but from the brilliant supporting performances of Casey Affleck, Matt Dillon and especially Joaquin Phoenix.

Recommended rental.

Nicole Kidman is wonderfully wicked and calculating as Suzanne Stone. Her sugary sweet voice and ice princess demeanor are utterly flawless, just creepy enough to make for a great performance.
The supporting cast is excellent - every single actor brings something fresh and witty to the screen, making the story that much more enjoyable.
Buy it. I can't sit here and say anymore than that.

I'm not sure if this movie was based on the real-life incident that occured on Easter Sunday, 1994, with the convicted and sentenced high school teacher, Diane Borchardt, who was a ray of sunshine at the school, but a miserable and abusive step-mom and wife at home. Her husband couldn't take it anymore and started a relationship with another woman. And when Diane found out, she went crazy and began terrorizing her husband and the woman while she seduced one of her students to murder him. It was made into a made-for-cable movie and is often aired on Lifetime Network. "To Die For" was a bit different, but still enjoyable.

nicole kidman finally delivers the performance that we all knew she was inherently capable of. she just needed the right platform for it. in this movie she pulls off something that only she can achieve. she is intelligent, charming, vulnerable, ruthless, depraved, deluded and downright sexy all in one delectable lip smacking package that will haunt you for many days after you've watched it. there is no one sexier in this industry. it was an excellent idea on part of the director to not show her completely naked. this way the mind is made to imagine with painful clarity, the juicy niceties that she has concealed behind the velvet bikini.
in the scene where she is flashing her bikini to her morose friend, you would sell your soul to the devil to watch her take off those underpants.
nicole teases, taunts and plays with your hormones. her eyes will make you cringe with an unholy desire and her body (and the way she uses it ) will tear the restraint out of your system and pull mercilessly but oh so pleasurably at the rising blood in your body.

watch it. and keep a saucer below your mouth.

Ileana Douglas delivers this incredible line that sums up this amazing film when I knew that Nicole Kidman was a force to be reckoned with. She is an amazing actress who so succinctly pulls off an incredibly hateful character. To watch her scheme and manipulate to further her TV dreams is amazing. As the script and director show the warping that TV creates and the insane frenzy to be on Tv people laugh but all of the reality shows prove this to be true. People will do anything to get onto television, even destroy themselves or the sanctity of marriage or relationships.
This insight into the minds of such people isn't so fictitious.

Nicole Kidman is perfect as the coldhearted, fiercely ambitious Suzanne Stone, who gets a job as a weather girl at a local TV startion and sees it as her stepping stone to fame as a broadcast journalist. She is married to a family-oriented lunkhead (Matt Dillon), a basically goodhearted guy who thinks her job is just a distraction till she gets pregnant. Suzanne gets involved with 3 teenagers --- incredibly painfully real next to her plastic exterior, particularly Alison Folland as Lydia ---- trying to break a story, and convinces one to help her murder her husband.

The performances are great, and the plot (based on a true story) is harrowing. This is a chilling tale of a modern Lady MacBeth that is worthy of 5 stars.