Date: Fri 08-Dec-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Illustration: C

Location: B-12

Quick Words:

Playing-Die-For-Kidman-Dillon

Full Text:

(rev of "To Die For," 12/8/95)

Now Playing-

Kidman Is Wallpaper No Longer

By Trey Pual Alexander III

To say Nicole Kidman's performance was great in Batman Forever would be like

saying you liked the wallpaper in the Louvre. In her case, she was just one of

the frills in a blockbuster plastered with wall-to-wall gadgetry, action,

effects and big, hammy star turns.

Stretching an already thin simile/metaphor even further, Kidman gets the

chance to be the gallery exhibit in To Die For , a sly, black comedy which

begins playing at the Bantam Cinema on December 8. No longer just an

accoutrement, Kidman pursues her role with gusto, and establishes herself as a

legitimate talent not to be dismissed; all disparaging remarks, such as "Mrs

Tom Cruise," need not apply.

Kidman stars as Suzanne Stone, a strawberry-blonde, polyester-clad, Jackie-O

wannabe who dreams of stratospheric stardom in a telejournalism career. A

self-professed mix of Connie Chung (without the ethnicity), Barbara Walters

(without the speech impediment) and Jane Pauley (without the weight problem),

Suzanne is a stockpile of ideas about how to get to the top... her

weather-person position at a yokel cable-access station notwithstanding.

Kidman sets the tone early for Suzanne, a comic exaggeration of the

personalities that flood the tube daily. Kidman's Suzanne has the chipper,

bright-white grin of a Katie Couric and the superficiality of the

info-tainment programs ("Entertainment Tonight," "Extra," etc). But behind a

surface ever ready for her close-up, Kidman's eyes foreshadow the diabolical

musings which can evolve from an unchecked fixation with celebrity and the

intense desire to become one.

The film opens in Little Hope, a small, appropriately named New Hampshire

town, during an intimate funeral in which dozens of flash bulbs erupt and a

montage of newspaper headlines streak by (superimposed over the gathering

during this opening credit sequence), intimating foul play.

The deceased is Larry Maretto (Matt Dillon), formerly the town's most eligible

bachelor (he played drums for the local band!). His sister (Illeana Douglas)

argues he could pick any of the available women, but he falls for Suzanne,

"The Ice Queen" to her peers. Larry shrugs, saying she is like a fragile,

porcelain doll, "one you want to take care of for the rest of your life."

Despite Larry's genuine affection for his betrothed wife, this is definitely a

tale in which the nice guy finishes last. Director Gus Van Sant hasn't crafted

a deep, psychological character study, so we are left to wonder why the

opportunistic Suzanne goes for Larry, who is of kind heart and modest goals.

She, on the other hand, lives for the chance to be under the white-hot blaze

of the spotlight.

The first several months of their marriage pass without major incident -

although Suzanne increasingly spends more and more time at the cable station.

But when Larry begins to express thoughts of her giving up the insufficient

job which she views as an important step in her burgeoning career, Suzanne

thinks about rubbing him out. How dare he even think of becoming an obstacle

on her road to fame!

Anyone familiar with the typical TV movie-of-the-week (my condolences if you

do) knows all about the sensationalized treatment of harrowing (and often

unbelievable) true life stories. Therefore, when a calculated Suzanne begins

seducing a dim-witted teenager (an effective Joaquin Phoenix), we know what

dirty work she has planned.

To Die For , rated R for strong language and sexual situations, is by no means

a moralistic film. But as satire, Suzanne's fascination with celebrity and her

boundless bids to attain it neatly skewer the current state of shallow tabloid

journalism and the public's often fetid, seemingly insatiable need to devour

it.