‘To Die For’: A Wickedly Entertaining and Chilling Depiction of Ruthless Ambition in Small-Town America

To Die For (1995) is an acerbic dark comedy that follows Suzanne Stone Maretto (Nicole Kidman), a small-town girl from New Hampshire who dreams of becoming a world-famous broadcast journalist. Wildly ambitious and manipulative, Suzanne works as a weather girl for a local cable station while spinning elaborate plans that far exceed her current position.

Suzanne is married to Larry Maretto (Matt Dillon), a kind and unassuming man, primarily for the financial security he provides — yet she soon decides he is holding her back from the fame she so desperately craves. Obsessed with her image and public perception, Suzanne begins an affair with a naive, troubled teenager named Jimmy Emmett (Joaquin Phoenix), a member of a local delinquent trio along with his friends Russell (Casey Affleck) and Lydia (Alison Folland). Through manipulation and seduction, Suzanne convinces Jimmy that Larry is abusive and a threat to her safety, ultimately persuading him and his friends to murder Larry under the guise of a robbery gone wrong. The fallout of their twisted plot becomes a sordid tale of deception, incrimination, and violent retribution.

Adapted by Buck Henry from the novel by Joyce Maynard, and directed by Gus Van Sant (Drugstore Cowboy, Good Will Hunting), To Die For is a sharply-crafted satire that skewers both media obsession and small-town American life. Kidman delivers one of the finest performances of her career—utterly convincing as a woman who believes fame is her birthright, no matter the moral cost. Though very much a 90's film, its commentary on media culture—particularly the way in which people craft and distort personal narratives for public consumption—feels strikingly current in the modern social media era.

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