Lizzie Borden took an axe,
And gave her mother forty whacks;
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one….
*Thump* the axe cracks down and Lizzie Borden is put on trial for the murder of her stepmother and father. In 1892, Mr. and Mrs. Borden were found axed to death in their Massachusetts home. The main suspect? Mr. Borden’s 32-year-old daughter, Lizzie. She was ultimately found not guilty by the jury- partially due to her status as a wealthy woman. To this day it is still being speculated if Lizzie did indeed murder the Bordens or if it was Bridget, the maid or Lizzie’s uncle, John.
Sadly, that same bloody axe also murdered Craig Macneil’s vision for his 2018 film Lizzie that came out September 14. Chloë Sevigny stars as the infamous Lizzie Borden in this thriller produced by Playtone and Artina Films. The film is a dramatic – and grossly over exaggerated – telling of the infamous Borden murders of 1892. It follows the point of view of Lizzie and her strained relationship with her father and stepmother. The film also plays along with the theory that Lizzie and the maid, Bridget Sullivan, were the ones that conducted these grisly murders. Additionally, it follows the idea that the two were caught in the midst of a steamy affair. While I was genuinely excited about the film, it sadly fell flat on every major part.
What did they do wrong? Besides being historically inaccurate, the film is incredibly drawn out. Paired with Kristen Stewart’s abhorrent and borderline offensive Irish accent, the screenwriting was exaggerated and plain. At most she (Kristen Stewart) spoke a couple words that were mumbled in classic KStew fashion and offered little to the plot. Additionally, the film was insanely boring. There was nothing that it offered that I couldn’t get from binging a History Channel special. The pacing was very slow and it made me lose all interest by the opening credits, which is obviously a special trait not all films possess.
Nevertheless, it’s not all doom and gloom; there were a few things they did right. For one, KStew and Chloë Sevigny were LGBT icons and unapologetically proud. As mentioned before, the film goes along with the rumor that Lizzie Borden and her maid, Bridget, were romantically involved. Sevigny and Stewart have this incomparable chemistry that just flows and makes sense. Their physical attraction is declared from the beginning and stays strong and not forced through the entirety of the film. I will say, however, I wish they developed the relationship a little more just because it’s almost assumed that we (the audience) know their feelings for each other. Additionally, the cinematography was true to the time period of the film and stayed consistent the whole time. The angles were nicely done and there were never any jumps that didn’t make sense.
Overall, would I watch it again? No. Absolutely not. Terrible film and terrible acting. While there were certain things that “worked” (I put it in quotations because they barely worked), it really wasn’t worth the $14 I spent on my ticket. I’ve never walked out of a film thinking, “wow, I just wasted 106 minutes of my life that I’ll never get back” – until now. Sadly, the film wrecked such an interesting murder mystery and the damage is irreparable. While there are so many things I would change, I’ll save you the lecture and just leave with some advice: save your time and money, watch The Lizzie Borden Chronicles (2015) on Netflix with Cristina Ricci. Ricci delivers a much more convincing and sinister portrayal of Lizzie, plus the overall tone is much truer to the original story.