I Love You to Death

This has got to be one of the great all time classics in a Dark Humor Comedy. Dark Humor, because of the ultimate theme in this movie which is to kill her cheatin man. Joan Plowright steels the show with her skills in her Yugoslavic dialect, and her uncanny talent to support other characters in the movie. She plays the live-in Mother of Tracy Ullmans charater, (Rosalie) who is married to Joey Boca, (played by Kevin Kline). Kline's performance is outstanding as would be expected, and Tracey Ullman never ceases to amaze me. Put that together with the late but very talented River Phoenix who plays the role of the busboy in the Boca's Pizza Parlor who is very in love with Rosalie; and you have one fine mix of fun, mayhem, and laughter, as they all take turns in trying to knock off Joey. But then if that wasn't enough, they then seek outside help, which only gets more funnier, as Keanu Reeves and William Hurt try to come to the aid, playing druged out druggies, who together make Dumb and Dumber look like Yale graduates. How this movie ends is the best of it all. I Love this Movie to Death...:-), well maybe not that much but try it you'll like/love it.

Clever writing, able direction and a stellar cast make this film a modern classic that stands up to multiple viewings. Tracey Ullman and Joan Plowright star as Rosalie Boca and her mother Nadja, both so furious at the infidelity of Rosalie's husband Joey (Kevin Kline) that they decide to kill him. The ensuing misadventures are VERY funny, particularly the attempts by hired hit-men Harlan and Marlon James, not-too-bright cousins played by William Hurt and Keanu Reeves.

All of the actors in this movie do hysterical work and make this movie very enjoyable to watch. Even Kline does a great Italian! Plowright and Tracey Ullman really resemble one another and their scenes are great. Add Harlan & Marlon (Hurt & Keanu) and River Phoenix, and a great cameo by Miriam Margoyles are Kleins' mother, and you've got yourself a highly watchable movie.

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.

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.