Il caso di Lizzie Borden

You probably know the "Lizzie Borden took an axe" children's rhyme and wondered where it came from. This movie tells the story of the real crime that formed the basis of the rhyme.

I was quite surprised that the actual case took place as recently as 1892. The rhyme had always seemed very traditional to me; I thought it must have been based on something a very long time ago.

Thankfully, the sound track was used at only half a dozen places in the film, because it was so inappropriate that it could easily have ruined everything. While the story took place in a sedate New England town, where people lived genteel lives, sipping tea and wearing frock coats (think Anne of Green Gables), the sound track was screaming rock. Unbelievably jarring. Even in a party scene where people were dancing whatever they danced in those days of long gowns--waltzes, I suppose--it was portrayed minus the sounds of the party, minus the music that would have been played there, all replaced with a nerve-jangling sound track of rock music. Whoever made that decision should find another field to work in. Horrible.

"Lizzie Borden took an axe, Gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, She gave her father forty-one."

I think this movie could have been a truly good film. Unfortunately, the mixture of this period film with rock and roll music and synthesizer music makes this almost unbearable. The acting is good and the scenery is well done. Costumes are perfect for the period. Christina Ricci plays the part well as she does with most of the roles she takes on. I also like Clea Duvall as Emma. She does a great job opposite Ricci. I only wish that Nick Gomez would have hired someone to do the music that would have put the scenes with music that fit the period. I think some piano, violin, and other strings would have been much more suitable to this film. Occasionally there is some nice creepy music over some scenes, but in the transitions between scenes we are forced to hear Sons Of Jezebel's song "Whoo Boy". It just doesn't fit. Overall this movie was a let down.

Closely follows the real story, as well as being an adequate remake of the 1975 TV version with Elizabeth Montgomery in the titular role. (Her performance was much more nuanced and provided significant ambiguity regarding Lizzie's actual guilt.) Christina Ricci is in fine form; the locations and costumes are accurate to the period; and overall, it should have been a good movie. The operative here being "should"......

However, the movie has been trashed by a nerve-wracking soundtrack. The utterly incongruous heavy rock music is totally inappropriate! This is NOT a movie meant to have a contemporary "feel" to it! It's like trying to watch Swan Lake with the soundtrack from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Whoever decided this was the way to go for a period movie had rocks in their head!

What a great story! Spinster daughter, faced with penurious life because inheritance could go to hated stepmother, is accused of killing stepmother and father with an ax. Why tart up film with weird atmospheric sounds, hip music, and unhistorical hints of incestuous emotions. A straight telling of events emphasizing the dependent role of women in the 19th century, the inability of society to accept that women could kill parents,and other legal and cultural aspects of Victorian America would have been enough. Christina Ricci, skillful actor though she is, seems to be reprising her role as the evil child in the Addams Family. She really needs to dial back the wide eyed penetrating stares and consider other ways to convey emotion. Clea Duvall, Lizzie's sister, was a standout. Not only did she looking a person of the late 19th century, she acted as one. Would that Christina Ricci had done the same.

What a disappointing film.

I'm just going to get this off my chest right away.

What was with that abhorrent soundtrack? This would've been a much better movie if it weren't for that awful music. Seriously. Rock & Roll? Stuff that sounds like grunge metal? In a movie that's set in the late 1800s? That makes *awesome* sense! Not.

If you can get past the soundtrack and give it a chance, it's a decent movie. I didn't really care for Christina Ricci, she just didn't seem that believable to me, but Billy Campbell was pretty good; though I've seen him in better things.

I just can't get over that soundtrack though. Yuck. It made an OK movie nearly unwatchable. My advice: Don't waste your time on this one.