To Die For

Genre: black comedy
Director: Gus Van Sant
Release: 1995
Studio: LH Productions, Laura Ziskin Productions, Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group – Sony Pictures Releasing
Rating: R
MBiS score: 8.1/10


Frankly, It’s The Weather Girls I Check Out, Not Their Satellite Maps


A huge commotion has engulfed the small burg of Little Hope, New Hampshire: Suzanne Maretto (Nicole Kidman), the vivacious weather girl on local TV, has been charged with murdering her husband Larry (Matt Dillon). With Dan Hedaya (Joe Maretto, Larry’s father), Illeana Douglas (Janice Maretto), Joaquin Phoenix (Jimmy Emmett), Casey Affleck (Russell Hines), Alison Folland (Lydia Mertz), Wayne Knight (Ed Grant, WWEN manager), Kurtwood Smith (Earl Stone, Suzanne’s father); Holland Taylor (Carol Stone), Susan Traylor (Faye Stone), Maria Tucci (Angela Maretto), Tim Hopper (Mike Warden), Michael Rispoli (Ben DeLuca), Buck Henry (Mr. Finlaysson), Gerry Quigley (George), Joyce Maynard (the lawyer) and David Cronenberg. Music by Danny Elfman.

Have you ever dreamed of becoming a TV personality? Or wondered what it takes to make it in the media? If so, you may have realized that a career in the public eye requires hard work, talent, ambition and luck… in proportions dictated by circumstance, personal goals and mindset. Case in point: the fetching Ms. Maretto. Suzanne is no Christiane Amanpour but an assertive and pretty lady, a whirlwind and a snappy dresser she certainly is. In other words, she packs more than enough to charm any red-blooded TV exec and score a ton on the Nielsen ratings. Moreover, she’s a great character on which to build a biting satire about the media world… and Gus Van Sant has treated her to a fine, shiny showcase.

Let’s not beat around the Bushes… TO DIE FOR shows solid craftsmanship, from its faultless direction, sprightly editing and lively pace – except for a fifteen-minute lull midway through – to its mad, mad screenplay based on Joyce Maynard’s novel and penned by Buck Henry. Acting-wise, its whole cast is note-perfect but I truly marveled at Nicole Kidman’s delicious, bubbly and multi-faceted turn as Suzanne; I also loved Matt Dillon as Larry, a man who may have dreamed of Hannah Storm but wound up with Desert Storm, Wayne Knight as a wily TV type, Illeana Douglas as Suzanne’s acerbic sister-in-law, Buck Henry as an authoritarian teacher and Joaquin Phoenix – already a fine actor then – as an intense and vulnerable young man who will learn a lot about life in a very short spell. But remember… TO DIE FOR’s raison d’être is comedy and it does deliver some devastating laughs along with a strong, well-deserved payoff.

So move over all of you Janes, Barbaras, Katies and Oprahs, Suzanne Maretto is already staking her claim to fame. And if Marshall McLuhan has posited that the medium is the message, I may add that, nowadays, it emphasizes image and self-promotion. Here’s to a fun and waggish time for movie buffs!


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