Icy ‘Lizzie’ methodical and measured to a fault
Not every accused murderer inspires a nursery rhyme, not to mention Lifetime movies, musicals and even ballets.
But not every accused murderer has a story like that of Lizzie Borden, the woman who was tried and acquitted of murdering her father and stepmother with an ax in 1892 in Fall River, Massachusetts.
That story is brought to the screen with a new sense of studiousness in “Lizzie,” the result of a decadelong journey by producer and star Chloe Sevigny. The film sets out to investigate the why behind the murder of Andrew (Jamey Sheridan) and Abby Borden (Fiona Shaw), if Lizzie (Sevigny) did it at all.
“Lizzie” takes its subject matter so seriously, it’s drained of all salaciousness, despite the salacious nature of the story — the rumored lesbian affair with maid Bridget Sullivan (Kristen Stewart), the gruesomeness of the deaths, the power struggles over money and property.
The onscreen combination of Sevigny and Stewart is so utterly cool, it’s icy, and in some ways, the film could use a little warming up.
The Borden home is depicted as a house of horrors, where the impetuous, bold, but sickly Lizzie clashes with her parents over her freedoms. Maid Bridget, an Irish immigrant, is assaulted nightly by the patriarch.
While her friend and confidant Lizzie gets herself in trouble with her emotional outbursts, Bridget endures hardship quietly, for her own survival. She is an innocent, our moral compass, and Stewart reflects that in a performance that’s pent up, tamped down and pained.
The film, which is methodical and measured to a fault, firmly takes the side of Lizzie. It presents her as a victim of emotional abuse, a woman sick with epilepsy, and a queer woman whose partner is sexually abused by her father, on whom they are both dependent. Spurred by the greedy machinations of her conniving Uncle John (Denis O’hare), and the budding relationship between Lizzie and Bridget, the situation at home reaches a boiling point.
The film toys with whether or not to show us the murders, teasing that fateful morning again and again, dancing around what we came to see (the part with the ax).
The respect for Lizzie means that the film practically denies drama, rendering some moments almost inert. It could use an operatic high note or even a dark night of the soul. But the film reflects the evenness with which Sevigny portrays the unflappable Lizzie. Sevigny’s steadiness is almost unnerving.
“Lizzie” is a deep dive into the supposed psychology behind the gruesome murders. If the jury that acquitted Lizzie couldn’t have imagined how a woman of her social standing could commit this heinous crime, well “Lizzie” offers an assist with that, and contributes another square to the quilt of Lizzie Borden lore.