TonyMontana96 (Originally reviewed: 12/04/2017) Nicole Kidman has many memorable performances to her name, and her performance here may just be her very best in Gus Van Sant's smart, effective thriller. The narrative is delightful, it tells the story in a unique way, by using the complexity of the character's to go into detail about what's going on and what the situations are, I admire a film that cares about having a well-structured story and complex character's that aren't pushed to the side, and here is a picture that studies it's characters very well, making the film more insightful than your run of the mill, routine thriller. Nicole Kidman play's TV weather personality Suzanne Stone, a woman with a lot on her mind, strong aspirations and energy, she is played brilliantly by Nicole Kidman, Matt Dillion play's the doomed husband 'Larry Maretto', a regular guy who wants nothing more than a normal life, owning a business, having kids, and being with his wife, he is very good, as well as Joaquin Phoenix who play's 'Jimmy' a weird college student with an obsession for Suzanne, and Illeana Douglas, who play's Larry's sister 'Janice', a likable woman who does not trust Suzanne all that much.The supporting cast also includes Casey Affleck as Russell, a class clown, Dan Hedaya, Larry's father 'Joe', a cautious and powerful man with connections to the Italian mafia, and Alison Folland as 'Lydia', one of the three students that agree to help Suzanne, she is as senseless as Russell and Jimmy but perhaps smarter in a couple of aspects. The performances are all convincing and respectable. The film possesses a really good soundtrack that includes Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'Sweet Home Alabama' and Eric Carmen's 'All by myself', adequate pacing, some rich, terrific dialogue and a nice, at times smart sense of humour. Other things I admired include Gus Van Sant's very impressive direction, and the complexity of the character's, which are all unique and free of most clichés and typical stereotypes, so kudos to screenwriter Buck Henry who also star's in the picture as the school's principal.However there were one or two things that could have been better, such as the explicitly of the sex, the film is at times erotic, but I think they should have went for a full on 18 rated picture that showed a little more of the sex scenes, I felt as if Van Sant could have took a look at Basic Instinct and includes sequence as erotic as those, one other thing is the scene where her husband is discovered dead, she walks in and doesn't even cry after hearing the news that her husband is dead, which I found unbelievable, there is also no tears shed at the funeral, another obvious suspicion that she may have been involved, but aside from that, I found the picture most enticing, and fairly original for the most part. To Die For is a very good thriller with impressive direction, complexity within the character's and an excellent performance from the beautiful Nicole Kidman.

gregkae Why? What has the humanity done to deserve the gift of this bundle of gushing sheep droppings with a big bow on top?Mr Van Sant is known for bad film-making but I guess he's just outdone himself with this extravaganza of rot. What a waste of talent - not his of course.Acting is good for what it is, the mockumentary style of filming is not. Go see any Christopher Guest movie if you want to see how it should be done ("Best In Show" anyone?). Here we have bad writing, simple and not compelling storytelling, slumber-like pacing, and the worst sin of them all - not funny.If you want compelling entertainment eat a gherkin and flush it down with some yogurt. It's gonna be explosive in some 20 minutes time.

juneebuggy 'To Die For' is a dark comedy about a small town weather reporter who is determined to be famous -at any cost, using her feminine wiles to arrange for some mixed up teens to murder her husband. It's been filmed in a documentary style with various interviews from the teens, husbands family and Suzanne Stone. Kidman does a pretty fantastic job as Stone, appearing seductive, cold, naïve and driven to the point of, well, murder. It was nice to see her back in the day when she still had some meat on her bones and the use of facial expressions.Joaquin Phoenix blew me away here especially when you see how young he is, he's just a boy. The movie itself was okay, no big twists or anything. 7/21/14

Red_Identity To Die For is a brilliantly intriguing black comedy/drama film with some truly fantastic performances at its core. Kidman can be hit or miss with me, but she's fantastic here, letting you see her character more and more, seeing her wheels turning as she calculated her every move. Kidman has never looked more amazing and she brings the electric charm that she's known for. It was really great seeing Casey Affleck in something that was done before 2007, and Phoenix was also another stand-out who brought a compelling character on screen in contrast to Suzanne's natural charisma. I'm glad I sought this one out and it stands as one of Kidman's finest performances.