Cast: Nicole Kidman, Matt Dillon, Joaquin Phoenix, Casey Affleck

Director: Gus Van Sant

Running time: 1 hr 47 mins

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Indie


REVIEW:

There’s a shocking, adroit wit in this Gus Van Sant feature that sends razor-sharp knives to the modern media-savvy society in the form of an artsy satire. It’s almost a scary truth as what TO DIE FOR delivers to the audience, that there are indeed people out there obsessed with gaining fame that climbing social ladders are a must, sleeping with anyone part of the stratum is an obligation, and even killing somebody is a learning experience, if necessary. With that meticulous message, all is told in a ruthlessly vicious black comedy that’s as funny, as sexy, and as cunning as hell.

That social climber is Suzanne Stone Maretto, played by the über-magnificent all-around thespian Nicole Kidman, whose blonde-girl looks and drop-dead gorgeousness resembles that of a fairy tale princess but has an ambition in life that’s as merciless as a wicked witch. She’s a pretty, porcelain-skinned small-town girl turned lovable local weather reporter married to normal slacker boy Larry Maretto (Matt Dillon, who looked so young here), son of an Italian restaurant-owning family. However, at the first reel of the film, we dive head first to the story: Suzanne is arrested for suspicion on her husband’s murder, after a series of shots of newspaper clips that explained the movie’s premise. But Suzanne has her own story – like any great arthouse flicks, it is stripped out of its Hollywood conformity, and gives us this straightforward feel of storytelling. She tells her view of the story in front of the camera, amid a plain white screen, with utter confidence and quirky tongue as though she was having an interview of her life, all spotlights turned on her, all the world’s ears listening.

Her character shows a cold-blooded narcissist obsessed with the television age philosophy “What’s the point of doing anything worthwhile if no one is watching”, an ultimate American epitome of its society. She scuffles for anything fame-worthy, and although she lands as a small television star, to her she considers it to the level of tabloid buzz or even nationwide fame. To bring it all together, she starts a documentary project with local school teenagers Jimmy (Joaquin Phoenix), Russell (Casey Affleck), and Lydia (Alison Folland), whom the first bloke fell in love with her. Here she uses the teenagers to plot murder, getting rid of her husband.

This is a spectacular film to behold in the field of character study. Larry, the schlocky good-for-nothing husband played by Dillon, is a sympathetic character brought up under his patriarchal Italian beginnings where husbands belong to houses and become mafia-like dons. Illeana Douglas, who plays Larry’s ice-skater sister Janice, gives an underrated performance. We brood and sulk along with her when her thunder was stolen in that scene where Suzanne announces her new job. Joaquin Phoenix, younger and very innocent-looking, delivers a sensitive performance as a teenager recklessly in love with the prospect of love, and would do anything for Suzanne’s whims.

Nonetheless, this is Kidman’s shining moment. Probably one of her best roles to date, which won her 6 Best Actress awards including her first Golden Globes circa 1995 and Empire Award, she possess an acting CV that any living Hollywood actress would make a run out of their jobs and money, making Suzanne Stone a timeless character that would always ring true no matter what generation you’re in. She tackles this character with aplomb and sense of control that it’s almost unpredictable, her ways and means, her class and style. With the glamorous dresses she’s in, the make-up she wears, the hairstyle she dons, the manoeuvres she steers in, it’s all tuned up into pitch-perfection. Yes, Suzanne is a vain, egomaniacal, hateful, and hilariously stupid yet burgeoning with slyness – but she’s also vulnerably human, a post-modernist fantasist lost in the wilderness of hyperspace and media craze. Great thanks to a witty script too; Kidman’s response to her husband when being asked about having children was “You should have married Mary Poppins if you want a babysitter.” And in an ironic scene, where Van Sant carefully executed, Suzanne was arrested and was escorted to the court, cameras flashing her way and reporters throwing questions about the arranged murder she was suspected of, to her it was like walking the red carpet with style.

VERDICT:

This rare, vicious, mean little arthouse comedy-satire works on so many levels, probably one of Gus Van Sant’s bests. Characters are not undermined but rather portrayed persuasively, or if possible, tinged with humanity that views the world inhumanely. Nicole Kidman is just iconic and, well – to die for.


RATING: A