Moving on to Gus Van Sant's To Die For and things are about to take a darker turn in this caustic tale of seduction, betrayal and a narcissistic weather girl. Loosely based on a true story and partly shot as a mockumentary, To Die For starts out as every teenage boy's wet dream - who wouldn't want to be seduced by Nicole Kidman, after all? Unfortunately her character, Suzanne Stone, is a bit of a sociopath, willing to trample on anyone who gets in her way and even murder her husband Larry Maretto (Matt Dillon) to achieve her goal of news anchor; a master manipulator of fizzing sexual desire more than capable of seducing the emotionally damaged teenager Jimmy Emmett (a wonderfully fidgety Joaquin Phoenix) into committing the unspeakable act. With a raft of fine performances across the board, Kidman really steals the show with her icy portrayal of Suzanne Stone. But as we're about to see, it isn't just the ladies who are capable of twisting the feelings of the opposite sex to suit their twisted agenda.
