Rating: 
Summary: The Perfect Film for a Celebrity-Obsessed Culture
Review: "To Die For" is a great little gem of a movie that, in my opinion, ranks as one of the best dark comedies of the last decade. Nicole Kidman, in what is probably her finest performance to date, is stunning as Suzanne "Stone" - her real name is Maretto - a completely self-absorbed, amoral, and utterly ruthless young woman who will let nothing stand in the way of her obtaining her goal of being a "television star". The film is shot in the style of a slightly wacky TV documentary, which only adds to the fun, as we see the "post-tragedy" interviews with those who were involved with the late Miss Stone. Stone is an attractive but cold-blooded blonde in a small New England town who is desperate to become a national celebrity on a national TV News Network. As proof of her warped psyche, she tells the audience "You're a nobody if you're not on TV" - which unfortunately does seem to accurately describe the feelings of many people these days. She's also determined to move up the social ladder in her little town, and so as the film begins she seduces and marries the handsome quarterback of the high school football team (Matt Dillon), the most popular boy in town. Dillon's sister despises Suzanne and sees right through her facade, but Dillon is so entranced he doesn't listen. Dillon goes on to work in his father's pizzeria, but Suzanne obtains a job as the weather forecaster for the local rinky-dink TV station, and begins to have dreams of glory. One of the darkly funny aspects of this film is that for all of Suzanne's scheming and ruthlessness she's not very bright, and her attempts to sound and act "sophisticated" are often hilariously inept. When her faithful but old-fashioned hubby tells her to quit her job and help him with the family business, she decides he's "impeding" her career and that she'll have to kill him. So she seduces an underage teenage geek (hilariously played by a very young Joaquin Phoenix), has a torrid sexual affair with him, and then convinces him to murder her hubby. At first she uses the shock of the murder to obtain further publicity - "you've got to think of your career first" - from the local and state media. Unfortunately, her underage love affair is discovered and she is ruined. Ever undaunted, she begins plotting her comeback, but Dillon's family (they are Italian), has a little surprise planned for their murderous in-law. Kidman's performance is dead-on - she plays Stone as a parody of the type of person who will do ANYTHING - even murder - to get on TV and become "somebody". The supporting cast is also excellent. The most troubling part of this film is that it was loosely based on a real story - an attractive New Hampshire schoolteacher who by most appearances had everything seduced a fifteen-year-old student and convinced him to kill her husband - apparently so she could leave her hometown and try to become "famous" in the big city. "To Die For" may seem like a delicious but improbable story - but it's really not all that far from today's news headlines. Ouch!
Rating: 
Summary: Hysterical and Wicked
Review: "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.
Rating:
Summary: The Perfect Film for a Celebrity-Obsessed Culture
Review: "To Die For" is a great little gem of a movie that, in my opinion, ranks as one of the best dark comedies of the last decade. Nicole Kidman, in what is probably her finest performance to date, is stunning as Suzanne "Stone" - her real name is Maretto - a completely self-absorbed, amoral, and utterly ruthless young woman who will let nothing stand in the way of her obtaining her goal of being a "television star". The film is shot in the style of a slightly wacky TV documentary, which only adds to the fun, as we see the "post-tragedy" interviews with those who were involved with the late Miss Stone. Stone is an attractive but cold-blooded blonde in a small New England town who is desperate to become a national celebrity on a national TV News Network. As proof of her warped psyche, she tells the audience "You're a nobody if you're not on TV" - which unfortunately does seem to accurately describe the feelings of many people these days. She's also determined to move up the social ladder in her little town, and so as the film begins she seduces and marries the handsome quarterback of the high school football team (Matt Dillon), the most popular boy in town. Dillon's sister despises Suzanne and sees right through her facade, but Dillon is so entranced he doesn't listen. Dillon goes on to work in his father's pizzeria, but Suzanne obtains a job as the weather forecaster for the local rinky-dink TV station, and begins to have dreams of glory. One of the darkly funny aspects of this film is that for all of Suzanne's scheming and ruthlessness she's not very bright, and her attempts to sound and act "sophisticated" are often hilariously inept. When her faithful but old-fashioned hubby tells her to quit her job and help him with the family business, she decides he's "impeding" her career and that she'll have to kill him. So she seduces an underage teenage geek (hilariously played by a very young Joaquin Phoenix), has a torrid sexual affair with him, and then convinces him to murder her hubby. At first she uses the shock of the murder to obtain further publicity - "you've got to think of your career first" - from the local and state media. Unfortunately, her underage love affair is discovered and she is ruined. Ever undaunted, she begins plotting her comeback, but Dillon's family (they are Italian), has a little surprise planned for their murderous in-law. Kidman's performance is dead-on - she plays Stone as a parody of the type of person who will do ANYTHING - even murder - to get on TV and become "somebody". The supporting cast is also excellent. The most troubling part of this film is that it was loosely based on a real story - an attractive New Hampshire schoolteacher who by most appearances had everything seduced a fifteen-year-old student and convinced him to kill her husband - apparently so she could leave her hometown and try to become "famous" in the big city. "To Die For" may seem like a delicious but improbable story - but it's really not all that far from today's news headlines. Ouch!
Rating:
Summary: She's One Crazy Bi-aaach..
Review: ....sorry to disagree with the last two reviewers, this is a good movie, because Nicole plays a less than virtuous role, like she does in "Malice" and some say "Eyes Wide Shut". Joaqiun Phoenix plays a stoner version of that kid in "American Beauty" and Illeana Douglas--well, I can get thrills just looking at that babe, but she does well as that sister who knows whats up from the beginning...this is better than what people say...
Rating: 
Summary: Big Fat Waste of Time!
Review: As a big fan of Nicole, I was pretty disgusted with this movie. It was so corny in dialogue and content I had a hard time staying interested, but did because it was so bad, I had to see what happened. And that affair with her student was so dusgusting! The ending was hardly entertaining, and I wanted my $ back at the theatre, which I got!
Rating:
Summary: Fact or fiction???
Review: Before this movie was released, there was a real-life incident that resembles the story line. Does anyone know if this was based on a true story??? I have heard from many that it was but I would really like to know...
Rating: 
Summary: not the worse film or acting...
Review: but definately not the best or even above average. why does kidman have to inhale rapidly like that after she finishes a sentence (referring her private video segments)? isn't she a trained actress that has learned breath control? i understand she wanted to protray a psycho-ditz, but... anyway, i watched it to the end, i guess mostly because it was based on a true story.
Rating:
Summary: This one will stay with you a little bit
Review: Clever story with more depth that appears at first blush, directed with irony and a sardonic sense of humor by Gus Van Sant. Nicole Kidman plays an especially shallow TV weather person who gets some grunge kids to kill her husband for her. Her motive is, as Illeana Douglas, who plays the sister-in-law, says, "he got in her way." This is a nice study of narcissism metastasized into psychopathology. She is headstrong, motivated and rather stupid. She thinks only of herself and would do anything for herself and would do anything to anybody who got in her way. And amazingly, she does. Matt Dillon is wasted as the husband (in more ways than one). I'm surprised he agreed to do the part. Kidman is mesmerizing and makes us believe in a slightly unbelievable character. We've all known narcissistic little darlings who would kill you for the right shade of eye shadow, but to see it acted out so coldly and with such appalling stupidity, yet with a psychology so bizarre that it has to be real, fairly takes your breath away. It was especially apt that she had him killed so that her pointless little docu-drama "Teens Speak Out" could become newsworthy enough for national exposure. Consciously she doesn't realize this: she has no introspection; she just acts. Also cute is the way the picture is framed: a pseudo-documentary within a pseudo-documentary. Everything is so well orchestrated that when Kidman gets her surprising, but entirely appropriate comeuppance at the end, we are quite pleased.
Rating:
Summary: LIFE ISN¿T WORTH LIVING IF YOU¿RE NOT ON TV
Review: Documentary style picture directed by Gus Van Sant, with Nicole Kidman at her shining best as Suzanne Stone, an aspiring tv personality who wriggles her way into local television weather broadcasting. She marries Larry (a funny Matt Dillon) who works with his father at the family pizzeria. The family is not at all taken with Suzanne's very selfish approach to life. Eventually Suzanne sees her husband as a hindrance to her tv career and convinces some young high school students to murder Larry. The format of the film is unique and striking, and Kidman's crazed, murderously ambitious character make this film well worth watching.
Rating:
Summary: Great performance from Nicole Kidman.
Review: Everything about this movie is perefect, but it is ultimately Nicole Kidman's performance that stands out. Her outer physical beauty does not alter the fact that deep inside, her character is a ruthless, evil, cold blooded killer. It just goes to show that you can't judge a person by their physical appearance. The movie also does a great job of showing the three teenage characters as being basically losers who seem to be destined to be stuck in their small town for the rest of their lives. Little Hope, indeed. Oh, and the musical score is really great, too.
|
