Lizzie is a film about a notorious crime that avoids the notoriety and examines the possible roots of the act. Craig William Macneill’s 2018 movie sees a brutal double murder that took place in the 19th century through a contemporary lens.
In 1892, Andrew Borden and his second wife, Abby, were found dead in their home in the American state of Massachusetts. The Bordens had been struck by an axe several times with great force – a detail that later proved useful when their younger daughter, Lizzie Borden, was suspected of the murders.
The film, which is available on Prime Video, draws on mystery writer Evan Hunter’s novel Lizzie (Hunter was another name for hard-boiled fiction writer Ed McBain). Bryan Kass’s screenplay strips the original case file of crucial details to focus instead on two women: Lizzie (Chloe Sevigny) and the family’s new maid Maggie (Kristen Stewart).
Maggie enters a household governed by the rules set by Andrew Borden (Jamey Sheridan). Lizzie rebels against Andrew’s diktats, but cannot go too far since she suffers from epilepsy.
Lizzie’s dislike of her stepmother Abby (Fiona Shaw) and indifference towards her sister Emma (Kim Dickens) draws her closer to Maggie. There are other secrets in the household that come to a head after the Bordens are murdered.
The distilled take on a well-documented crime doesn’t benefit all characters equally. However, Craig William Macneill’s tightly controlled storytelling approach is less keen on a comprehensive picture. Rather, Macneill paints a miniaturised portrait of what it must have been like to be intelligent, sensitive women in the nineteenth century.
Lizzie casts a sympathetic glow around its heroines, who are played with feeling by Chloe Sevigny and Kristen Stewart. Cinematographer Noah Greenberg often keeps his camera inches away from the faces of the main characters, bringing out their shared sense of being trapped as well as the freedom they find in each other’s company. The film ultimately spins its own fiction of what happened that day in the Borden household. It might not be the definitive version, but it’s always compelling cinema.
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