Ich liebe Dich zu Tode

A surprise hit....at least with me. I found this dark comedy hilarious in spots and so-so in others, but overall a funny movie. With comedy that's what happens anyway: some jokes connect; others don't. Most are pretty good in here but beware: some of the jokes are in poor taste, but that's a dark comedy for you. Also, some Catholics might be offended because the film takes some shots at them, or at least people who go overboard in rationalizing their sins, as Kevin Kline does in here.

There is an odd assortment of actors in here and they all contribute to the fun: Kline, Tracey Ullman, William Hurt, River Phoenix, Keannu Reeves, Joan Plowright and James Gammon.

Supposedly, this film was based on a real-life happening, which makes it all the more interesting and lending credence to the saying that "truth is stranger than fiction."

Plowright almost steals the show from Kline and Ullman, the husband-and-wife team who have problems because of Kline's persistent cheating on her. Plowright in Ullman's mother and has some of the best lines in the film as mother and daughter plot how to kill the immoral Kline.

Phoenis plays a young New Age devotee and Hurt and Reeves are funny as two totally stoned-out hit men. Hurt is particularly good.

This movie is so-so to start until Ullman finds her husband cheating. Then, after a heart-wrenching minute or so, she and her mother plot to kill the unfaithful spouse. The comedy then goes full out as they hire these really goofy hit men and things don't go smoothly. The ending is quite different and quite touching with a very good message....which is all I will say in case you haven't seen this.

I'm not surprised that no one has commented on this movie because it didn't make much noise when it came, nor when it disappeared, but if you've got the chance do rent it, pleas do, it's a little jewel of a movie. The movie claims to be based on a true story and it probably is. Tracey Ullman plays the wife of a pizza man who decides to kill her husband when she finds out he's cheating on her. She's cheered on by her morbid Yugoslav mother and aided by her admirer, the new age bus boy at the pizza place. But everything goes wrong. The actors are excellent and Kevin Kline is SO funny as the macho Italian and River Phoenix is perfect as the love struck wannabe killer. I've seen the movie a couple of times and I always laugh until I fall off my bed when I see Keanu Reeves and William Hurt as the two cousins with one brain cell (together) who are called in to finish the husband off. It has to be seen! There is no glamour in this movie. People look completely real and they live in a house that looks totally normal, full of toys and ugly furniture. Don't be put off by the title. See it, you won't be disappointed.

I love this movie and its crazy to know that its a true story- a wacky but true story. I think the movie has a really different type of sense of humor but then again so do I. All of the characters are really funny in their own ways and it made me laugh to see them all interacting together. The father (Kevin Klein) is so clueless about everything. This movie takes some serious subjects and make them funny and something to joke about- not to mention its a true story. Also, Keanu Reeves who usually does serious movie roles like the matrix and sweet November is hilarious in this movie, he plays a total druggy and does a really good job at it. Anyways I have seen this movie tons of times and recommend that you watch it, maybe you'll like it maybe you wont.

Remarkably, the film is based on a real event. But it takes off from that base and becomes a screwball comedy in the classic style.

Wonderfully droll performances are given by everyone in this Hitchcock-like farce about a murder that doesn't quite work and a man who just won't die. Joan Plowright steals every scene she is in -- which isn't easy in a film that is full of so many zany plot twists and hilarious lines of dialogue.

This film is a little gem of a comedy. See it if you can.

In the only feature film of his career that could be classified as a comedy River Phoenix called I Love You To Death a 'whacked out comedy'. Who am I to disagree.

Kevin Kline and Tracey Ullman are the stars of I Love You To Death and he's the exponential alpha male owner of a pizzeria in Tacoma, Washington where for the female customers he makes personal deliveries. With a cheesy Italian accent, probably deliberately so, Kline charms all the women who buy pizza to give their all to him. Mind you he still loves his wife. But there isn't a pair of breasts between 18 and 45 he can't pass up.

In I Love You To Death Ullman has decided she's up to HERE with Kline's serial infidelities. She and her mother Joan Plowright decides he has to die. They enlist the aid of pizzeria employee River Phoenix who plays a new age kid type, not terribly far from the real life River Phoenix although he didn't think so.

I believe that director Lawrence Kasdan must have read an account of the murder of Rasputin because in real life it took all kinds of things to put him down. They were more successful than this team of assassins were with Kline.

Adding to the hilarity when Phoenix enlists them to help are brain dead druggies William Hurt and Keanu Reeves. The three of them trying to get the job done on Kline is very funny. Reeves and Phoenix met on this film and the next project for both would be My Own Private Idaho the best film both of them ever did.

Dame Joan Plowright a.k.a Lady Olivier is also very funny with another cheesy accent. She's from Yugoslavia and no matter which ethnicity the former polyglot republic had, they're all vengeful people.

In the end though all is forgiven. You have to see the film to know what I'm talking about.