To Bathe in Filmic Waters

To Die For | Gus Van Sant, 1995

Leading lady Nicole Kidman has had many ups and downs in her career. Perhaps the downs outweigh the ups, but I’m sure the lady herself would quite rightly argue that she has kept two feet firmly in the Hollywood spotlight for many years now. Even today at 40 she is still heralded as one of America’s most bankable female performers. All of this tends to distract from the point I’m attempting to make – that Kidman has talent as an actress. It’s only six or seven years since her acclaimed show in The Hours scooped a best actress Oscar, though people seem to have already forgotten this feat. It was a performance that I believe was perhaps eclipsed a year later with her role in Lars Von Trier’s overlooked experimental effort Dogville. In To Die For Kidman easily matches these two renditions; she plays aspiring TV girl Suzanne Stone, a driven and dangerous young woman who will do just about anything to make it in the industry. The character is an extremely colourful one that makes an impact using a confident, almost arrogant attitude , that is offset with some well placed femininity to seduce if not intimidate entirely. Kidman plays this role perfectly, creating a ravishing woman of the world whose naivety is shown with the kind of subtlety I previously thought to be beyond the actress.

Kidman is backed up by the equally impressive and fresh-faced Joaquin Phoenix in one of his earlier roles. He plays Jimmy Emmett, an oppressed adolescent who falls for Ms. Stone and whom she eventually uses thoroughly to get what she wants from life. Namely the killing of her own husband Larry (Matt Dillon) who she believes is standing in the way of her own blossoming career. With To Die For, Gus Van Sant chose the curious and risky process of splitting up the storytelling into direct-to-camera rants from each character: an insightful choice, but one that ultimately falls flat in creating any kind of dramatic suspense whatsoever. Thus, we find it difficult to become embroiled in the plot – something not helped by the largely confused motives exhibited also. Despite the decent performances all round (look out for a young Casey Affleck as Jimmy’s oafish friend), To Die For fails on many levels thanks to a lack of truly involving the audience in the central character’s plight. Yes, she is a diabolically watchable personality, but one whose motive is truly lost thanks to Van Sant’s fumbling. Hence, while entertaining, her position is also rather a shallow one. An interesting overall concept that tries vainly to employ some kind of black comedy to distract from a conceited plot, in the end rendering it quite pointless.

Our Rating: