Nicole Kidman in the To Die For movie poster.
Matt Dillon in 2009.
Sure, it's Nicole's role in To Die For to be a TV bimbo, with TV good looks and a TV personality, who gets almost every man bonered who watches her for more than approximately 5 seconds, but I ask you, Who Cares? Was Nicky so down and out in 1995 that she had to take this role? I don't think so. In any case, I've tipped my hat to her major co-stars in the movie, and this piece does begin "An Appreciation of.....Nicole Kidman," so I must say:
The movie works, which it never could have without Kidman's almost-total banality; I say "almost-total" because near the end, she does exhibit consciousness. Moreover, it's Ms. Kidman who emits half the howler explaining TV's popular appeal -- see below.
So, Dillon and Kidman marry in the movie; Dillon is an Italian-American, and his sister, Janice Maretto (perfectly played by Illeana Douglas), is the character in the movie providing the earliest clues to answering the question graphically posed just before the movie ends: Is Matt Dillon's father connected?
Howsoever, my wrap of To Die For is a quotation from the two most impressive woman actors in the movie, which convinces the viewer that after all it might just be the greatest movie ever made about TV:
"You're nobody in America unless you're on TV." -- Nicole Kidman. And, "...being on TV makes you a better person." -- Alison Follard.
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