To Die For
First impressions, in one word? You
really want to know?
Four letters, begins with C …
Cold. Cold. C-O-L-D. Cold. Yeah.
– Illeana
Douglas, as Janice Maretto.
If you want to see a convincing and
chillingly accurate on-screen portrayal of a Malignant Narcissist and Sociopath, then look no further than To Die For (1995).
There’s an exchange that sums up
the problem at the core of the central character, Suzanne Stone (Nicole
Kidman).
Her boss, Ed Grant (Wayne Knight),
at the small WWEN local cable station, says:
“Well, Suzanne, I sure pity the
person who says no to you.”
Ed is joking when he says it.
Suzanne looks directly at him, her
face blank, emotionless, no humor in her voice, as she responds:
“No one ever does.”
She snickers after saying it, but
it’s not out of humor; she’s smug.
That’s the problem.
No one has ever said no to
Suzanne.
Suzanne gets whatever Suzanne wants.
Suzanne will do anything and
everything to get her own way.
The end justifies the means.
It’s Suzanne’s way
– or else!
She craved attention all her life.
It started with a spoiled child.
Posing
for cameras.
Made to feel like she’s better and more special than everyone else.
Entitled.
Enabled.
Over-indulged.
Now Suzanne is a grown woman.
A
fully-developed demon, with the attitude that the rules and laws don’t apply to
her.
That she can do and say whatever she pleases.
People around her are to be
used, destroyed and discarded, at her will.
Suzanne’s sister, Faye (Susan
Traylor), is quietly resentful.
Often just there in the room, watching Suzanne
with scorn and bitter understanding.
Suzanne lands a job at the cable
station, where she handles basic tasks.
Her boss eventually gives in and lets
her have the on-screen spot as the weather reporter.
It’s a go-nowhere job, but
Suzanne sees it as a spring-board to TV stardom.
She uses the station’s
equipment to create her own documentary, Teens Speak Out, focusing on
the lives of three high-school teenagers:
Jimmy Emmett (Joaquin Phoenix), Russell
Hines (Casey Affleck), and Lydia Mertz (Alison Folland).
Trouble starts when Suzanne’s
husband, Larry Maretto (Matt Dillon) says no to her.
How dare he?
What was he
thinking?
Larry is an average guy who wants a quiet, normal life.
He’s doing
well with the restaurant business he runs with his father.
He wants Suzanne to
quit her job at the cable station and help him at the restaurant.
But Suzanne has ideas of her own.
Helping with her husband’s
restaurant business and living a simple life would mean the spotlight isn’t on
Suzanne.
She wouldn’t be the center of attention.
It flies against Suzanne’s
selfish, narcissistic IT’S ALL ABOUT ME mindset.
And she can’t and won’t have
that.
As Larry is sharing his business
ideas with Suzanne, she detaches.
We see Larry through her eyes, as she gets
tunnel vision.
Almost as if she is viewing her husband through the scope on a
gun.
Suzanne has him in her sights, and not in a good way.
Larry is doomed from that moment.
By saying no to Suzanne, by not
letting her just have her way, Larry has signed his own death warrant.
It gets him murdered.
Too cunning to bloody her own
hands, Suzanne decides to use the three teenagers in her documentary.
Gullible
and naïve, they make easy targets for the predatory and manipulative Suzanne.
They unwittingly become her Flying Monkeys.
She makes Lydia believe they are
best friends, taking her on shopping trips to the mall.
Then she seduces Jimmy.
Using sex and the promise of a life together, an exercise in Breadcrumbing and Future Faking, to
keep him on her side.
She fills Jimmy’s head with lies, claiming that Larry is
physically abusive towards her, pretending to be the victim, as she turns on
the theatrical tears as easily as a faucet.
The sympathy ploy.
When Jimmy gets
nervous about committing murder, she triangulates him with his friend, Russell.
Jealousy and the fear of losing Suzanne finally sways Jimmy.
What follows is murder by proxy,
through third-party involvement.
Jimmy, with the help of two accomplices, pulls
the trigger, but Suzanne is the puppet master, pulling all their strings.
On the night Larry is killed,
Suzanne is on TV giving the weather report.
She concludes with a special dedication
to her husband.
We’re given a look behind Suzanne’s superficial mask of charm.
We see the sadistic, malicious glee burning in her eyes, as she declares
her love for Larry, on their first wedding anniversary, knowing what is
happening to him.
After the murder, when the trio
have served their purpose, Suzanne coldly discards them.
To Die For was directed by Gus Van Sant, and
released in the United States on October 6, 1995.
The screenplay was written by
Buck Henry, who plays the role of a cynical school teacher.
The script is an adaption of the
source novel, by Joyce Maynard, who appears in a cameo role, as Suzanne’s lawyer.
The novel is Joyce Maynard’s fictionalized retelling of the true Pamela Smart
case.
The movie is highly stylized and
entertaining.
Most of the time, we’re watching a mockumentary, straight-to-camera
monologues, in a series of edited interviews, from witnesses to the sordid and
tragic events.
The story is both dark in its
subject and darkly funny.
The moment where the hapless Jimmy,
gazing blank-eyed into camera, can only grunt as Suzanne prompts him to
respond, is hilarious.
In the end, there’s no sympathy for
Suzanne, and it’s impossible not to empathize with Janice Maretto (Illeana
Douglas), sharing her feeling of schadenfreude, as she dances over the ice maiden’s
icy grave, and Donovan sings Season Of The Witch over the end credits.
Nicole Kidman threw herself into
the role of Suzanne Stone and gives one of the best performances of her career.She doesn’t miss a step as the amoral, spoiled, high-maintenance, petulant, treacherous
wannabe.
A callous sociopath.
This is Suzanne Stone’s world and
it’s all about her, evident in the scene when the family are gathered in the
house with the police.
Suzanne notices the TV cameras and news reporters
outside.
She checks her hair, as she glides out of the house to bask in the
glare of the spotlight.
She’s the center of attention, being photographed, on TV … exactly the way
she likes it.
Whenever a camera lens is focused on Suzanne, she puts on her best shiny mask.
It’s reminiscent of the end
of Sunset Boulevard (1950), where the insane Norma Desmond (Gloria
Swanson) says:
“Alright, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.”
As William Shakespeare wrote: All that glitters is not gold.
The supporting cast includes:
Dan Hedaya and Maria Tucci, as
Larry’s parents.
Kurtwood Smith and Holland Taylor,
as Suzanne’s parents.
George Segal, as a TV executive.
Gerry Quigley, as the cable station
camera operator.
David Cronenberg, as a hit man.
Tim Hopper and Michael Rispoli, as
the police detectives who uncover the truth.
The music is by Danny Elfman.
To Die For is sharply edited, with a
brilliant script and excellent performances.
It is also an intelligent portrayal of the
dangers of celebrity culture, toxic self-absorption, and malignant narcissism.
For
further research on the Pamela Smart case:
Teach Me to Kill: The Shocking True
Story of the Pamela Smart Murder Case,
by Stephen Sawicki.
Deadly Lessons, by Ken Englade.
Till Death Do Us Part: Love,
Marriage, and the Mind of the Killer Spouse, by Dr. Robi Ludwig and Matt Birkbeck.
Evil Women: Deadlier Than the Male, by John Marlowe.
Skylights and Screen Doors, by Dean J. Smart.
Murder in New Hampshire: The Pamela
Wojas Smart Story
(1991), a TV movie, directed by Joyce Chopra, starring Helen Hunt and Chad
Allen.
Crime of Passion: The Pamela Smart
Story (1996),
episode from the documentary series American Justice.
To Die For (2012), episode from the Reel
Crime/Real Story documentary series on Investigation Discovery.
Captivated: The Trials of Pamela
Smart (2014), an HBO
documentary, directed by Jeremiah Zagar.
From Student Seduction to Murder (2016), episode from the USA
Network series Corrupt Crimes.
Pamela Smart: An American Murder
Mystery (2018), a
three-part documentary on Investigation Discovery.
Killer Intellect (2021), episode from the Deadly
Women series, on Investigation Discovery.
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