To Die For (1995)

To Die For is a movie worth revisiting. By today’s standards its just another episode of Snapped but in the Spring of 1990 the true story of Pamela Smart rocked Derry, New Hampshire. Two made for TV movies (one locally cobbled together and one starring Helen Hunt), a Joyce Maynard penned novel, and then this film adaptation by Gus Van Sant quickly followed. This movie is inspired by Maynard’s facsimile of Pamela and it makes for an entertaining view. I was brought back to To Die For after watching a recent HBO documentary about the case. Yet its uninspired talking heads and lagging pace made it less exciting that your standard Law & Order SVU repeat. The one interesting thing it did add to the story is the unveiling that one of the jurors kept a recorded diary of the trial. The woman speaks to the recorder with the comfort of one of her closest girlfriend and illustrates that perception in a court of law will always confuse decisions of guilt or innocence. But back to To Die For, my favorite adaptation of this true crime telenovela.

Over the years I’ve never been that invested in Nicole Kidman. I feel like I’m betraying women by saying I’ve always found her icy in interviews (But I have!). I usually like my stars vulnerable, quirky or at least lovably messy. Here I absolutely adore her and can think of no better person to breathe life into Suzanne Stone-Maretto, our fake-ish version of Smart. Suzanne Stone straddles roles of Virgin Mary, cluelessly ambitious mosquito and sparkling ingenue. She’s Charles Manson in a powder pink suit and batting spider lashes, leading her flock of potential miscreants with promises of television and skimpy fortune. I mean who would kill someone for a measly thousand dollars? Fucking knuckle heads. Joaquin Phoenix, who plays her teenage suitor, Jimmy, is all of twenty one years old and coming off the heels of the far less edgy Parenthood. Here he is subtly brilliant. One of my favorite scenes is where he and Kidman’s character take their affair (kinda) public with a night at the fair. While the two prep to take pictures in a photobooth we see Jimmy’s slight discomfort and unfamiliarity with outward displays of affection. He almost winces at her kiss, then slyly smiles as if he’s won the biggest prize of the night. The biggest disappointment here is Matt Dillon, they could have replaced him with that cardboard cutout of Ted Danson that “haunted” the set of 3 Men and a Baby and I would have been all “So what? Who cares?”. I felt more empathy for the dad from Clueless, oh he has a name?

The styling of Suzanne Stone is ***flawless. At her best she’s Barbie come to life: all candy colored suits, immaculate hair, and even has an accessory dog in the form of a Pomeranian named Walter (Pamela’s was named Halen after Van Halen). At her worst she’s a crude version of Anne Margaret’s Kim in Bye Bye Birdie. And I love all of these looks. I prefer the Hollywood ending in To Die For to the real thing. There’s something a little Hitchcock in Van Sant’s alternate finale, and it helps that David Cronenberg makes a wink at the camera kind of cameo at the end. Overall To Die For is the art house Lifetime movie I’ve always dreamed of with just enough lowbrow to border on perfection. And if we’re not a nation who loves a Ripped from the Headlines story of seduction and murder than who are we? America, fuck yeah!

To Die For (1995)

To Die For is a movie worth revisiting. By today’s standards its just another episode of Snapped but in the Spring of 1990 the true story of Pamela Smart rocked Derry, New Hampshire. Two made for TV movies (one locally cobbled together and one starring Helen Hunt), a Joyce Maynard penned novel, and then this film adaptation by Gus Van Sant quickly followed. This movie is inspired by Maynard’s facsimile of Pamela and it makes for an entertaining view. I was brought back to To Die For after watching a recent HBO documentary about the case. Yet its uninspired talking heads and lagging pace made it less exciting that your standard Law & Order SVU repeat. The one interesting thing it did add to the story is the unveiling that one of the jurors kept a recorded diary of the trial. The woman speaks to the recorder with the comfort of one of her closest girlfriend and illustrates that perception in a court of law will always confuse decisions of guilt or innocence. But back to To Die For, my favorite adaptation of this true crime telenovela.

Over the years I’ve never been that invested in Nicole Kidman. I feel like I’m betraying women by saying I’ve always found her icy in interviews (But I have!). I usually like my stars vulnerable, quirky or at least lovably messy. Here I absolutely adore her and can think of no better person to breathe life into Suzanne Stone-Maretto, our fake-ish version of Smart. Suzanne Stone straddles roles of Virgin Mary, cluelessly ambitious mosquito and sparkling ingenue. She’s Charles Manson in a powder pink suit and batting spider lashes, leading her flock of potential miscreants with promises of television and skimpy fortune. I mean who would kill someone for a measly thousand dollars? Fucking knuckle heads. Joaquin Phoenix, who plays her teenage suitor, Jimmy, is all of twenty one years old and coming off the heels of the far less edgy Parenthood. Here he is subtly brilliant. One of my favorite scenes is where he and Kidman’s character take their affair (kinda) public with a night at the fair. While the two prep to take pictures in a photobooth we see Jimmy’s slight discomfort and unfamiliarity with outward displays of affection. He almost winces at her kiss, then slyly smiles as if he’s won the biggest prize of the night. The biggest disappointment here is Matt Dillon, they could have replaced him with that cardboard cutout of Ted Danson that “haunted” the set of 3 Men and a Baby and I would have been all “So what? Who cares?”. I felt more empathy for the dad from Clueless, oh he has a name?

The styling of Suzanne Stone is ***flawless. At her best she’s Barbie come to life: all candy colored suits, immaculate hair, and even has an accessory dog in the form of a Pomeranian named Walter (Pamela’s was named Halen after Van Halen). At her worst she’s a crude version of Anne Margaret’s Kim in Bye Bye Birdie. And I love all of these looks. I prefer the Hollywood ending in To Die For to the real thing. There’s something a little Hitchcock in Van Sant’s alternate finale, and it helps that David Cronenberg makes a wink at the camera kind of cameo at the end. Overall To Die For is the art house Lifetime movie I’ve always dreamed of with just enough lowbrow to border on perfection. And if we’re not a nation who loves a Ripped from the Headlines story of seduction and murder than who are we? America, fuck yeah!