To Die For - Plot

Plot

Living in the fictional seaside village of Little Hope, New Hampshire, Suzanne Stone (Nicole Kidman), a young, beautiful, and ruthless woman dreams of being a world-famous news anchor. To that end, she marries Larry Maretto (Matt Dillon), because she believes his family business will keep her financially comfortable, and starts attempting to climb the network news ladder, beginning as a weather girl at a local cable station, WWEN.

When Larry, who truly loves Suzanne, starts asking her to take time off from her career to start a family, she immediately plots to get rid of him. To this end, she begins a high school project called "Teens Speak Out," and during a dancing project at her house while Larry is away, she seduces Jimmy Emmett (Joaquin Phoenix), a disturbed young man, and strong-arms him and his friends, delinquent Russell Heines (Casey Affleck) and low self-esteemed Lydia Mertz (Alison Folland), into killing Larry, whom she describes as abusive and self-centered. Jimmy is reluctant at first, but complies when Suzanne grants him sexual favors and threatens to leave him if he does not. With the aid and abetment of Russell and Lydia, Jimmy ultimately commits the murder, but is wracked with guilt after seeing Larry's rather calm demeanor during the struggle.

The police begin investigating when they stumble across a "Teens Speak Out" video of Suzanne at Jimmy's school in which Jimmy discreetly hints a relationship (albeit a deteriorating one, since Suzanne no longer needs Jimmy) with Suzanne. Jimmy, Russell and Lydia are arrested, but Lydia makes a deal with the police to converse with Suzanne with a tape recorder taped to her stomach, and Suzanne unwittingly reveals her hand in the murder. Despite this undeniable proof of Suzanne's guilt, however, she is acquitted in court, on the basis that the police had resorted to entrapment, and walks free (although it is also hinted that Suzanne bribed her way out of trouble). Jimmy and Russell are sentenced to life in prison and sixteen years, respectively, while Lydia gets out scot-free for her cooperation.

In the end, however, Suzanne gets her comeuppance when she fabricates a story about Larry becoming addicted to drugs, desiring to turn over a new leaf and subsequently getting killed by the drug suppliers, Jimmy and Russell, who wanted to keep him silent. Larry's father, Joe (Dan Hedaya), hears this on television, and realizes that Suzanne was behind his son's murder, and consequently uses his mafia connections to have her murdered. The hitman (David Cronenberg) lures Suzanne away from her home by pretending to be interested in publishing her life story, murders her quietly, then buries her under a frozen lake, her favorite spot, where she once skated. In a final irony, Lydia gains national attention by telling her side of the story in a television interview, becoming a celebrity.

The final scene shows Larry's sister, Janice (Illeana Douglas), practicing her figure skating on the frozen lake where Suzanne's corpse is hidden, thus literally dancing on her grave.