To Die For

Columbia Pictures | Release Date: September 27, 1995

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

86	METASCORE Universal acclaim based on 23 Critic Reviews

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Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

100

Desson Thomson

Kidman grabs center stage and never relinquishes the position. Playing mercilessly against her pinup girl image, she's an unforgettable, comic archetype—a more slapsticky corollary to William Hurt's bumbling, handsome newscaster in "Broadcast News." Read full review

100

Film.comJohn Hartl

Scathingly hilarious...To Die For could be the "Dr. Strangelove" of its genre, a movie that puts even John Waters' somewhat similar "Serial Mom" in the shade.

100

Peter Travers

To Die For, sparked by a volcanically sexy and richly comic performance by Kidman that deserves to make her an Oscar favorite, is prime social satire and outrageous fun. Read full review

100

Elvis Mitchell

An irresistible black comedy and a wicked delight. [27 Sept 1995]

100

Marjorie Baumgarten

Kidman inhabits the lead character of Suzanne Stone (yes, Suzanne Stone) with such sly and delicious zest that we can only wonder why this aspect of her acting has been buried under blonde dramatic ambitions. Read full review

Hal Hinson

Brilliantly written by Buck Henry, "To Die For" works on several levels. As a satire on the American obsession with celebrity and fame, the movie is nuanced and haunting. And for the most part, Van Sant keeps the tone chillingly light and ironic. Read full review

Film.comSean Means

The cast of To Die For is perfect all around, but Kidman trumps them all with a gutsy, uncompromising performance...It's an audacious performance for a movie that dares to be nasty.

Kenneth Turan

The most accurate assault against the media age since "Network," To Die For's killer lines and wicked sensibility are given added poignancy by the off-center, sensitive performance of Joaquin Phoenix, River's younger brother, the only person more deluded about Suzanne than she is about herself. Read full review

Film.comKathy Fennessey

Van Sant and crew appear to have had a blast making this film, and I had a blast watching it. The subject matter is very dark and yet it is handled with a very light touch.

David Ansen

A smart and wicked delight. Read full review

Michael Wilmington

Kidman crafts a characterization of breathtakingly controlled artifice, dead-on timing, dizzyingly precise humor. Her part is a knockout--in every sense of the word. [6 Oct 1995]

Mike Clark

Not since Tuesday Weld in "Pretty Poison" has an actress so played off her fresh-faced beauty for such pointed black-comic effect. Read full review

Liam Lacey

Giddily impudent in its execution, pummelling in its message, To Die For is finally a comedy black enough for the tabloid television age. Read full review

Roger Ebert

Kidman is superb at making Suzanne into someone who is not only stupid, vain and egomaniacal (we've seen that before) but also vulnerably human. Read full review

David Rooney

Delivers continuous pinpricks of irreverent humor and subversive cultural commentary.

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Charting the ruthlessness of an ambitious bimbo telecaster in Little Hope, New Hampshire, this staccato black comedy sustains its brilliant exposition and narration until the plot turns to premeditated murder, complete with hapless and semicoherent teenage accomplices. Read full review

Mick LaSalle

The murder plot is a cheap turn that says nothing about the nature of Suzanne's ambition. Without Suzanne's media-obsession as its focus, To Die For becomes just another fairly good black comedy. Read full review

James Berardinelli

This movie is no masterpiece, but it is an electric, colorful production that roasts the media and those obsessed by it over an open flame. Read full review

David Sterritt

A conventional dark comedy with moments of unexpectedly biting wit. Read full review

Owen Gleiberman

The film's most memorable performance is also its most incongruous: As Jimmy, the teen sap who falls hard for Suzanne, Joaquin Phoenix is dead-eyed yet touchingly vulnerable -- a mush-mouthed angel. Read full review

Barbara Shulgasser

Half snappy, sardonic and incisive and half slow-moving, goofy and dense. Read full review

TV Guide MagazineHarlan Jacobson

Nicole Kidman does the best work of her career in a character that seems to fit her tighter than pantyhose. Swathed in camera-friendly pastels, she's dead from the neck up (a scene with uncredited George Segal confirms that) but she's got legs like scissors, ambition like a knife, and a will of pure steel. Read full review

Stanley Kauffmann

To Van Sant's credit, let's note that he has evoked more lightness and variety from Kidman, more scrimshaw gesture and inflection than I thought she could muster. [23 Oct 1995]