To Die For
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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To Die For is a 1995 film directed by Gus Van Sant, and written by Buck Henry based on the novel of the same name by Joyce Maynard, which in turn was inspired by the story of Pamela Smart. It stars Nicole Kidman, Joaquin Phoenix, and Matt Dillon, with Illeana Douglas, Wayne Knight, Casey Affleck, Kurtwood Smith, Dan Hedaya, and Alison Folland as supporting cast. Kidman was nominated for a BAFTA, and won a Golden Globe Award and a Best Actress Award at the 1st Empire Awards for her performance. Her character has been described as suffering from narcissistic personality disorder in the scientific journal BMC Psychiatry.
The film includes cameos by George Segal, David Cronenberg, author Maynard, and screenwriter Henry. It features original music by Danny Elfman.
Plot
Suzanne Stone has always been obsessed with being on television, aspiring to become a world-famous broadcast journalist. She marries Larry Maretto, using his family restaurant business to keep herself financially stable, and takes a job as an assistant at WWEN, a local cable station, in hopes of climbing the network ladder. Through relentless persistence, she's eventually promoted to doing the station's evening weather report.
When Larry starts asking her to give up her career in favor of helping out at the restaurant and starting a family with him, Suzanne immediately begins plotting to get rid of him. She manipulates the high-schooler subjects of the TV documentary she has been making, Teens Speak Out, into doing her bidding, seducing Jimmy Emmett and coercing him and his friends, the delinquent Russell Hines and the shy Lydia Mertz, into killing Larry. With the help of Russell and Lydia, Jimmy ultimately commits the murder.
Though Larry's death is ruled the result of a botched burglary, the police stumble across a Teens Speak Out clip of Suzanne at their school which points to her sexual involvement with Jimmy. The teens are arrested and connected to the crime scene. Lydia makes a deal with the police to converse with Suzanne while wearing a wire, and Suzanne unwittingly reveals her hand in the murder. However, despite this damning evidence, Suzanne argues that the police resorted to entrapment and is released on bail. All the charges against Suzanne were dropped with lack of evidence that she ordered the murder on her husband.
Basking in the media spotlight, Suzanne fabricates a story about Larry being a cocaine addict who was murdered by Jimmy and Russell, his purported dealers. Jimmy and Russell are sentenced to life in prison. Russell gets his sentence reduced while Lydia is released on probation. Meanwhile, Larry's father, Joe, realizes Suzanne was behind his son's death and uses his mafia connections to have her murdered. A hitman lures Suzanne away from her home by posing as a movie studio executive, kills her, and conceals her body beneath a frozen lake.
Lydia tells her side of the story in a televised interview and gains national attention, becoming a celebrity. Janice, Larry's sister who always hated Suzanne, practices her figure skating on the frozen lake where Suzanne's corpse lies.
Cast
{{Cast listing|
- Nicole Kidman as Suzanne Stone-Maretto
- Joaquin Phoenix as Jimmy Emmett
- Matt Dillon as Larry Maretto
- Casey Affleck as Russell Hines
- Illeana Douglas as Janice Maretto
- Alison Folland as Lydia Mertz
- Dan Hedaya as Joe Maretto
- Maria Tucci as Angela Maretto
- Wayne Knight as Ed Grant
- Kurtwood Smith as Earl Stone
- Holland Taylor as Carol Stone
- Susan Traylor as Fay Stone
- Tim Hopper as Mike Warden
- Michael Rispoli as Ben DeLuca
- Buck Henry as Mr. H. Finlaysson
- Gerry Quigley as George
- David Cronenberg as Man at lake
- Joyce Maynard as Lawyer
- Amber-Lee Campbell as Suzanne at 6 years old
