"Good night, honey" : To Die For Reflection
Gus Van Sant’s movie, To Die For, brings the crimes of the infamous Pamela Smart to the surface through this mockumentary which feels more like a whimsical dream. Nicole Kidman’s portrayal of character Suzanne Stone conveys just how far a person will go to get what they want. Suzanne looks like something out of Stepford Wives with the ethereal clothing and perfect persona but inside, she was hiding a burning desire for success and murder. I was surprised to learn that this movie, while extremely alluring and wicked, was more than just the story based off of Pamela Smart. The main mockery of the film is that compared to Smart’s story, To Die For brings a much more intriguing story line that can’t be ignored. To me, when compared to the movie, the actual crimes are juvenile to Kidman’s portrayal. It also became one of the many movies in the 1990’s (Fear, Basic Instinct, Funny Games) to base their plotlines off of factors such as mental disorders (narcissism, manipulation, etc.). and unmentionable fears that can happen right in the living rooms of modern day American suburbia. During the scene of Suzanne seducing Jimmy (Joaquin Phoenix), I couldn’t help but feel tense and awkward because everyone involved was under her spell and just could not comprehend how she was the epitome of evil. Suzanne is so egotistical and cunning that she has every step planned out and has no guilt over exploiting a young boy and his friends. No one wants to think about a grown woman sexually luring a child into killing her husband but Van Sant ever so artfully gets the point across of how this is what people are truly like behind closed doors. He gave people an image to connect to real life and for me, that unpleasant view will always be more indelible than any of the other 1990’s movies mentioned earlier. The ending scenes show how the entire irony of the film makes a full circle with Suzanne’s own hired-to-kill death and celebrity status coming from her last television interview. She finally gets the thing she has been vying over at the expense of never being able to actually benefit from it. While being an extremely exaggerated depiction of the Pamela Smart case, To Die For represents the notion that with greed, people like Suzanne Stone will always be their own worst enemy.
