Lizzie

It would be inaccurate of me to say I don’t know what the makers of Lizzie were going for with this movie. I know what they were doing. They were trying to take this sensationalist,brutal crime and give their particular adaption of it some dramatic clout as opposed to sensationalist exploitation. Sadly, Lizzie went too far over that line. The main problem I have with this biopic is how dull it is. If your biopic about an axe murderer is dull above anything else, something has gone seriously wrong.

Lizzie follows Lizzie Borden’s life leading up to her committing the crimes she is most remembered for. A great deal of the film is showing how shitty her life is in an attempt to justify the extremity of her actions. Lizzie’s father is abusive. It is also revealed that upon her father’s death, he has left his entire estate to Abby, Lizzie’s stepmother. This would leave Lizzie penniless and destitute. Lizzie’s one friend and ally comes in the form of Bridget Sullivan, a new maid in the Borden household. Lizzie and Bridget strike up a friendship which eventually turns romantic. However, Lizzie and Bridget’s romance is halted by Lizzie’s terrible father catching them in the act. Quickly after this, Lizzie kills some people with an axe and Bridget isn’t sure she really likes that side of Lizzie.

Lizzie takes a great deal of time to remind its audience of how bad it was to be a woman back in 1892. Despite her intelligence and independence, Lizzie is forced to rely on her father who is untrustworthy, violent and bad with money. Society as a whole has also cast Lizzie out because of her status as an old maid (unmarried at 32) and her occasional fits of epilepsy. There’s constantly an unspoken suggestion that Lizzie killed because of society, man. Like, if she wasn’t in this oppressive society wouldn’t have brutally killed two people. And maybe that’s true. But on the other hand, terrible as it is, Lizzie’s circumstances don’t seem overly awful given the time period. So, if it’s society’s treatment of women to blame for these crimes, surely there would be a lot more brutal murders happening during this time period. But that’s not the case. Lizzie’s actions are extreme and no amount of societal ostracization and sexism explains them. It was foolish of the movie to suggest otherwise.

After almost two hours of poorly paced, dull setup, we finally get the murder scene. It’s the best scene in the movie and also completely tonally inconsistent with the rest of the movie’s attempts to distance itself from any sort of sensationalism or sleaze. It’s a lengthy scene that features both Lizzie and Bridget nude for the duration. I’d have much rather watched some alternate universe version of Lizzie where the murder scene matches the tone of the rest of the movie. That would’ve been a more interesting and better acted movie. But for the iteration of Lizzie we have in this reality, it’s totally out of place. You can’t spend 95% of your movie aggressively avoiding anything that might make your movie look sleazy or sensationalist and then do a naked lesbian couple double axe murder scene. That’s not how this works.

I don’t know what historical validity this movie’s claim that Lizzie was having a romantic relationship with a maid has, but I also don’t care. Biopics are always to be taken with a grain of salt anyway. What I do care about was that like everything else in the movie, the romance in question is rather dull. Chloë Sevigny and Kristen Stewart just lack chemistry. Because of this, the small moments of intimacy that lead up to them actually kissing don’t look like romantic buildup. They look at most like brief moments of kindness and at worst, just the character being awkward. I’m still not mad this relationship is in the movie because I’m pretty much never made at WLW being in things. I do wish I cared as much about this actual couple as I do about the abstract concept of WLW being in things.

Kristen Stewart does steal the show in this. I didn’t know she could do an Irish accent. Stewart’s performance has depth to it which frankly, Sevigny’s is lacking. As a lead actress, Sevigny offers little up. Through the majority of the film, she says her lines with a fairly flat affectation; like she is a single step above being visibly bored by the proceedings. There’s no inner turmoil or psychological unrest to be found in Sevigny’s Lizzie. I feel no fear, concern or sympathy for this character because it seems like she feels nothing either.

I can’t stress how bland and boring this movie is. It’s one of those movies that exists at a base level of competence so I can’t call it objectively bad, though. It is, however, deeply dull and unmemorable. I love WLW and I also enjoy watching a good murder so Lizzie should’ve been a movie for me. Too bad it took itself so damn seriously and failed to be anything other than dull.

Overall rating: 5.8/10

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