In 1892, Lizzie Borden (Chloe Sevigny) brutally murdered her father and stepmother with an axe. Or did she?
Craig William Macneill's new film, Lizzie, covers the murders from the weeks leading up to the infamous date, and the fallout from the convictions, charges, and trial that would determine the fate of a daughter with an innocent face but a questionable temper.
Bryce Kass' script paints the younger Borden sister as the innocent party here, the recipient of abuse from her overbearing father (Jamey Sheridan) and negligence from her stepmother (Fiona Shaw). Emma Borden (Kim Dickens) can see the toll of the abuse but has no plan to stop it. The unforgiving uncle (Denis O'Hare) is a master at turning his cheek the other direction. It's only when the lovely yet quiet maid, Bridget (Kristen Stewart), arrives that the tide starts to turn in the house.
Lizzie and Bridget become close, and then they become very close. A mutual appreciation that starts with the Borden sibling helping the maid improve her reading skills grows into a romantic attraction and alliance against the male oppression in the house. It's only a matter of time before the Father Borden finds out, which unleashes chaos in the house and ends in cold-blooded murder.
Look, there's no real complexity to the movie. You won't scratch your head or be left wondering who may have killed who and who helped. Macneill and Kass take a straight line to the true story, layering it with an old-fashioned setup that quickly turns to gore in the latter stages. It's a laid-back approach to filmmaking that suits the material and provides the audience with a chilling account of a story that hasn't lost any flavor in over 120 years.
What I appreciated was the blunt force handling of the murder scenes. If you are going to make a Plain Jane account of a bloody tale, please don't go halfway with the execution. When the time comes for the women of the house to make a stand, the blood sprays and the camera doesn't move at all. You are treated to the abuse that leads to the slashing, and then the slashing itself. Without that upfront retelling, the rest of the film is flat, and you have a television movie on your hands starring Alicia Silverstone and Zoe Kravitz.
Sevigny, who co-produced the film, and Stewart both turn in good performances here without being remarkable. There isn't an overabundance of dialogue, so the actresses have to rely on expressions, movement, and reactions to cobble together a performance. They register with the audience because of the feeling provided by the performers. Stewart is particularly effective, perfecting the accent and knowing when to push and when to show restraint in the third act. They make you believe in their relationship, so you'll trust their actions.
This isn't a wonderful film. I didn't feel the need to campaign in the streets of Princeton Heights after I screened it. The tone of the film is steady yet quiet, and the pace of the film lacks a pulse at times. Once again, the creators don't try to craft something that isn't there, instead simply telling a horrific story with as much conviction as they can. It's a good yet unremarkable film that will make problematic parents turn over a new leaf.
The chilling aspect of the story lends the film an irrelevance that kept me from falling in love with it. Overall, it's just a worthy trip to the movies. If you were going to do a film adaptation of Borden's story, this would be the best possible version. Sevigny and Stewart bare all figuratively (and literally in the final scenes), and if you like a horror film with a real-world twist, check out Lizzie.
