Lizzie Borden and the gruesome murders of her parents remain in the public imagination, due in part to that memorable childhood rhyme about 40 whacks. Andrew and Abby Borden were found brutally murdered in their home in Fall River, Massachusetts on August 4, 1892, when no one else was there except Lizzie and a servant girl. Yet Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the murders, partly because the jury just could not believe that such a well-brought up young lady from a respectable family could possibly have committed such a horrible crime.
Over the years, there have been lots of theories about what happened that day. LIZZIE is a psychological thriller that tells one possible version, one that delves into the family dynamics within the Borden family and the restrictive lives of women in that patriarchal era, particularly unmarried, respectable ones like Lizzie.
Chloe Sevigny plays Lizzie Borden, with Kristen Stewart as the Bordens’ young Irish servant girl Bridget. Making a film about Lizzie Borden has been a years-long passion of Sevigny, who grew up in New England, after she visited the Borden home and learned about the many mysteries and myths surrounding the murders. The film is directed by Craig William Macneill from a script by Bryce Kass, which had been commissioned by star and producer Chloe Sevigny.
LIZZIE is a moody, atmospheric film that focuses on what may have driven the well-brought up Lizzie Borden to such extremes, a told with a feminist bent. The Bordens were a prosperous, well-respected Massachusetts family. As expected for an unmarried woman of her era, Lizzie lived in the home where she grew up, with her stern father Andrew (Jamey Sheridan), her stepmother Abby (Fiona Shaw), and her also unmarried older sister Emma (Kim Dickens).
Andrew Borden was a very wealthy man but he was also frugal with his money, refusing to install electricity or even indoor plumbing in their house, although those amenities were common in the homes of people with their degree of wealth. While the family was well-respected in the community, Andrew Borden is more feared than loved, and had made many enemies.
Lizzie’s father was concerned about presenting the proper respectable public image to the community, and was strict, even controlling, towards his daughters. At 32, Lizzie was already considered an “old maid” and was expected, by the social rules of the time, in remain in her parents’ home and live there unobtrusively for the rest of her life. While her older sister accepted this fate, Lizzie chafed at the restraints placed on her as an unmarried woman, particularly for a socially prominent family like the Bordens. Lizzie had no money of her own, as women of her social standing did not work outside the home, and was dependent on her father.
Abby has never been close to either of her stepdaughters, as she tells their new maid. Feeling isolated, Lizzie forms a bond with the new maid Bridget, despite the differences in their social stations.
Sevigny delivers a tour-de-force performance that conveys the frustration at the suffocating circumstances under which Lizzie must live. Sevigny paints Lizzie as an intelligent, independent woman who is also a bit of an eccentric with a feminist bent ahead of her time.
The film focuses on the events leading up to the murders and the gruesome killings rather than the trial that followed. The friendship between Lizzie and Bridget grows into something more, something that had been rumored about the real Lizzie Borden. We frequently see Lizzie rebelling against her strict father Andrew, and her defiant behavior leads to talk of sending her to asylum, something completely within her father’s legal power. At the same time, we see her father making arrangements for his wealth and business matters to be handled by his brother-in-law John (Denis O’Hare), an oily social climber that Lizzie dislikes.
Fine acting and the strong cast are a major factor in making this film work. Kristen Stewart brings a depth to her often silent character, which acts as a sympathetic ear to the stressed and lonely Lizzie, and makes it believable that they could grow close.
Sevigny is the real creative force behind this film and she is well-cast as Lizzie Borden, bringing an intelligence and complexity to the character, and the sense of a woman suffocating under the restrictions of the era, her social position and her family.
Fine acting and the strong cast are a major factor in making this film work. Kristen Stewart brings a depth to her often-silent character, which acts as a sympathetic ear to the stressed and lonely Lizzie, and makes it believable that they could grow close. Jamey Sheridan’s natural warmth helps moderate Andrew Borden’s nasty behavior, suggesting an element of over-protectiveness towards his daughter although it does nothing to excuse his habit of foreclosing on properties. Fiona Shaw’s Abby Borden seems simply disconnected from her stepdaughters rather but Denis O’Hare brings a sinister cunning to his role as her brother John, raising questions about her motives.
All in all, the cast paints a more complex picture of the Borden family than we expect, as well as a surprisingly complicated Lizzie.
Photography by Noah Greenberg gives the film an unsettling sense of voyeurism as well as foreboding. Many scenes take place in the Borden home, where a spare and sparsely decorated space lends a feeling of claustrophobia despite the relative emptiness. As we follow Lizzie around the house, going through her daily routine, a sense of tension and oppressiveness builds. The cramped and cluttered space of the shed just outside the house seem free and relaxed, as well as hidden, by comparison.
The film focuses on psychological tensions and brooding mood, more than action and confrontation, which some audiences might find dull at times. Once we get to the murders, that shifts.
Sevigny and screenwriter Kass used trial testimony as inspiration to help capture Lizzie’s personality, transcripts that Sevigny felt revealed a forthright woman with a dry sense of humor, quite bold, even feminist, for her time. With little known about what actually happened the day of the murders, the filmmakers were forced to invent a plausible scenario, and the version they come up with is an intriguing one, the act of a woman with limited options and driven to extremes to escape an insufferable situation.
LIZZIE opens Friday, Sept. 21, at the Plaza Frontenac Cinema and the Tivoli Theater.
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
