I Love You to Death

The result is an actor's dream, a film in which the truth of almost every scene has to be excavated out of the debris of social inhibition. more

The film nicely maintains its tone, somewhere between satire and farce.

The result is a one-joke movie. more

More problematical is the tone of the film, which attempts to be both compassionate and goofy, though the events are funny only if they are seen as farcical. more

Despite its mixture of macabre slapstick and broadly stroked caricatures, the film has sleepy-time rhythms; it's easily the pokiest farce I've ever seen. more

Lawrence Kasdan directed this fair-to-middling black comedy from a script by John Kostmayer, and although the pacing is sluggish in spots, people with a taste for acting as impersonation will enjoy some of the scenery chewing. more

Kasdan has inexplicably reduced flesh-and-blood characters to cartoons. more

I Love You to Death is strenuously unclever. more

I Love You to Death lacks the precision, ferocity and guts needed for black farce. more

I Love You to Death is a stillborn attempt at black comedy. more

This movie is based on the real life antics that occurred here in Allentown, Pa. to a friend of mine, his family and employees. Here's the story: "When Anthony Toto, 37, a pizza-shop owner in Allentown, Pa., put up $50,000 bail for his wife Frances Lenore, the local police and others in the community were stunned. The reason: according to charges filed by the district attorney, Frances had conspired to murder her husband -- not once but twice. The bizarre case began on Jan. 25. That night, prosecutors contend, Anthony Bruno, the 20-year-old boyfriend of Toto's 17-year-old daughter... more

I hadn't really studied the package that closely, but as the opening credits were playing, I couldn't help but think, "Wow! This is, like, the dream cast." I knew, of course, that it featured Tracey Ullman and Kevin Kline as the leads. But Joan Plowright! River Phoenix (what a tragic loss)! William Hurt! They even squeezed character actress Miryam Margolies. And, of course, you've got Keanu Reeves in yet another stoner role, but you know, you gotta give Keanu credit. No one did those roles better. He is spot on here. A black comedy based on actual events? Hmm, how often do you come across... more

I saw this movie shortly after it's release on HBO in the earliy '90s. It has a full fledge cast that just make it superb to watch. Kevin Kline as Joey the Pizzaria Owner, who just can't get enough women, and is soo fun loving. Tracy Ullman plays his wife Rosalee, who loves her husband soo much, she would rather kill him than share him with any other woman. Joan Plowright plays Rosalee's Mother, who has a nack for mechanical work and it's nothing for her to be working on a carbortor at the Dinner Table at a restaraunt while the family is dinnig out. River Phoenix plays the boy who works at... more