I Lost It at the Movies

"To Die For" came out before I entered high school--before!--and it still stays in my mind.

It's the story of Suzanne Stone, a character built off a real-world human, Pamela Smart. Ms. Smart conspired to have her own husband murdered, and that's also what happens in "To Die For."

Suzanne, a sociopath, can't understand why life won't just conform to the shape of a TV narrative. Why would anyone wonder if Suzanne wants to have a family? ("Two problems with that: You can't cover a royal wedding if you're pregnant.....And, also, who wants to look at you afterward?") Suzanne recognizes an opportunity for media coverage at her own husband's funeral, so she pulls out a boom box and looks mournful for the entirety of a song, "All By Myself." Suzanne can't be bothered with a troubled teen's story about an assault: She waves a hand impatiently and says, "You know what? You put that memory in a box, and you put that box far, far away.....Then it's like the event never happened...."

I adore Suzanne, just as I adore Bruno in "Strangers on a Train": I like the icy stare we get when Suzanne says "goodnight," on TV, to her murdered husband. I like the way Suzanne invents a fictional "Weather Center" for her bizarrely intense low-budget meteorology bulletins. And I like the weird sexual innuendo involved in Suzanne's creepy speech about her dog.

But--again, like "Strangers on a Train"--"To Die For" gives us *more than one* great character. The movie would suffer if we didn't have Joaquin Phoenix struggling to form sentences, Illeana Douglas plotting against an arch-villain, and Matt Dillon getting philosophical about potted plastic greenery.....

Well, I love this movie. And I always will. So, so inspired....

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