Review of To Die For (1995) by Mike C — 17 Nov 2013

Not horrible. The critics love this, rating it just shy of what they rated Schindler's List. That's a big overboard. I am a fan of Casey Afflect, and he was just on Dan Patrick and the mentioned this movie so I rented it. Van Sant, after all, did direct Good Will Hunting, maybe my favorite movie.

It's loosely based on the true story of Pamela Smart. In the movie, Nicole Kidman, who is a total smoke show 18 years ago, plays a ditzy blonde who will do anything to get on tv. She works for a local, low-budget station and tries to make a name for herself. When she learns her husband might get in the way of her plans to be famous, she has these misfit kids kill him.

I suspect there are many true aspects to the story, and I believe there is a more factual film based on the case. This was billed as a dark comedy and went a few different ways. Several times throughout, it was hinted the husband's Italian family had mob ties, and well, that ties into the end of the movie. That for certain is not true as the real Pam Smart went to prison.

So not a terrible movie. I chuckled a few times but otherwise did not find the humor. Dark comedy, to me, is something like World's Greatest Dad. Affleck's character is lame, as is Phoenix's, but both looked like real kids from the case. One scene that stands out, when Phoenix and Kidman first get together, is how young he looked 18 years ago and how much "gravitas" Kidman had in that scene. I would say it's quite reversed in recent roles.