To Die For (1995)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Gus Van Sant

Writers (WGA):

Joyce Maynard (book)
Buck Henry (screenplay)

Release Date:

6 October 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

All she wanted was a little attention.

Plot:

Suzanne Stone is an aspiring TV personality who will do anything to be in the spotlight- including enlisting 3 teenagers to kill her husband.

Plot Keywords:

Television | Panties Hit The Floor | Hitman | Italian Restaurant | Teen Angst

Awards:

Won Golden Globe. Another 6 wins & 9 nominations

Cast

Nicole Kidman	...	Suzanne Stone Maretto
Matt Dillon	...	Larry Maretto
Joaquin Phoenix	...	Jimmy Emmett
Casey Affleck	...	Russel Hines
Illeana Douglas	...	Janice Maretto
Alison Folland	...	Lydia Mertz
Dan Hedaya	...	Joe Maretto
Wayne Knight	...	Ed Grant
Kurtwood Smith	...	Earl Stone
Holland Taylor	...	Carol Stone
Susan Traylor	...	Faye Stone
Maria Tucci	...	Angela Maretto
Tim Hopper	...	Mike Warden
Michael Rispoli	...	Ben DeLuca
Buck Henry	...	Mr. H. Finlaysson

MPAA:

Rated R for strong sexual content, and for language.

Runtime:

106 min | Argentina:110 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:12 | South Korea:18 | Philippines:R-18 | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Finland:K-15 (DVD rating) | Finland:K-16 (original rating) | Germany:12 | Peru:14 | Portugal:M/16 | Singapore:M18 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Brampton, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Patricia Arquette, Jennifer Connelly, Joan Cusack, Bridget Fonda, Jodie Foster, Melanie Griffith, Daryl Hannah, Holly Hunter, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tatum O'Neal, Mary-Louise Parker, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, Brooke Shields and Uma Thurman were all considered for the lead before the role was offered to Meg Ryan. She, however, later changed her mind and left the project, which made director Gus Van Sant fear the film would be shelved without its top-line star. At this point, Nicole Kidman stepped in.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Larry and Suzanne are in Miami on their honeymoon they are enjoying a warm, sunny day and Larry is in a colorful tropical shirt. But his breath is clearly visible when he speaks.

Quotes:

Suzanne Stone Maretto: It's nice to live in a country where life, liberty... and all the rest of it still stand for something.

Movie Connections:

Spoofs Forrest Gump (1994)

Soundtrack:

GODANGINUTA

90's Masterwork

Gus Van Zant's wildly original take on the pursuit of fame at any price is a gruesome black comedy that works flawlessly on every level. Van Zant comes at his story from the viewpoint of a series of narrators who see through media lusting Susan Stone Marretto as she stops at nothing to bask in it's spotlight. The media in turn is more than willing to accommodate.

Nicole Kidman as Susan is intimidating beyond the screen as she narrates much of her story into the camera. In addition to her remarkable seductive charm being put to use she also intimidates with a convincing icy coldness. She is the bold and the beautiful and Kidman is perfect to the role.

Having bullied her way into a job as a weather forecaster at a small audience cable station Susan never stops shooting higher. She enlists three aimless high schoolers in a plot to kill her husband so as to unburden her to pursue her career. With sex as a tool it is easy to convince the moronically dim Jimmy who masturbates to her late night forecasts to come on board. The three teens Joaquin Phoenix, Casey Affleck and Allison Foland are uniformly brilliant particularly Phoenix as the clueless doomed Jimmy. Her husband Larry (Matt Dillon)it might be said is in the same boat. Dillon along with Ileana Douglas and Wayne Knight fill out the solid supporting cast as narrators and victims of Susan.

Buck Henry's biting script shows he has not lost his edge since his Graduate days. Director Van Zant's vision of a fin de siecle cross section of America is brutal and original. From those laboring for the American Dream to the bleak Lidsville existence of the teens Die burns with both nervous energy and tragic-comic farce. Accompanied by an all inclusive period music score Vant Zant's wide angle is both brazen and revealing from gaudy colored suburban drab sterility with hints of incest to tragic siding housing and an auto graveyard landscape that serves as a playground to the teens. Told in flash forward and back Van Zant's pace never lingers for a moment as it rapidly presents an in your face comic and tragic pastiche of dark Americana. Van Zant admirably expresses it with a bold visual flair keeping scenes lean and sharp that over a dozen years later still retain there power and energy. It is a vibrant piece of film making and a 90s classic.