Review: Lizzie

Not much is particularly known about Lizzie Borden other than the nursery rhyme that told of how she took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks and her father forty-one. The truth, of course, was not as extreme though gory and horrific nonetheless, but sometimes it's best to go with the legend, from which numerous books, plays, and films have sprung. The latest iteration of the notorious tale comes in the form of Craig William Macneill's Lizzie, which repositions Lizzie and her story as an example of a woman fighting against the oppressive and patriarchal society of 19th century New England.

We first meet Lizzie (Chloë Sevigny) on the day of the murders as she lets out a bloodcurdling scream at the sight of the bludgeoned bodies and orders her Irish maidservant, Bridget (Kristen Stewart, always a compelling presence to behold), with whom she was engaged in a romantic and sexual relationship, to fetch the police. The film then flashes back six months earlier when Bridget first arrives at the Borden household and its dysfunctional dynamic. Patriarch Andrew (Jamey Sheridan) is cruel and tightfisted, eschewing modern luxuries such as electricity, which he deems extravagant though this was common for other wealthy people of the time. His second wife Abby (Fiona Shaw) was not especially liked by Lizzie, who believed that her stepmother had only married her father for his money, though Lizzie's dislike does not seem to have been equally matched by her older sister, Emma (Kim Dickens).

Both sisters are spinsters and in line to inherit their father's fortune, but have no voice in their father's brother John (Denis O'Hare) being named as custodian of their inheritance. Lizzie finds her uncle suspect, calling him a liar and a fraud to his face. Lizzie's lack of power over the decisions that are being made on her behalf contribute to her frustration. Her wilfulness, outspokenness and epileptic seizures place her in bad stead with her father, but he has other matters that dominate his distress, most significantly threatening letters which frequently appear on the Bordens' doorstep. One notes, "No one will save you from what is to come," whilst another reads, "Your sin will soon find you."

For a time, Lizzie successfully works as a gothic horror that wades into territory well-trodden by Hammer film and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and others of its ilk, where the very luridness of its theme manifests itself in an emotional vertigo that both fascinates and repulses. Yet its intention to render Lizzie an early pioneer of the #MeToo movement feels too clunky and self-conscious. This is no fault of Sevigny's, who delivers a highly commendable characterisation, but more piercing is Bridget's plight precisely because it is presented as it was and might have been rather than reframed through modern eyes. This is especially clear when setting Lizzie alongside its spiritual companions - Jean Genet's The Maids, which was loosely based on French sisters Christine and Léa Papin (who murdered their employer and her daughter in 1933), and the magnificent Alias Grace, which was the fictional account of Grace Marks, an Irish-American maid convicted of killing her employer - both of which are smart enough to let the realities of the time provide the psychological horror.

Lizzie

Directed by: Craig William Macneill

Written by: Bryce Kass

Starring: Chloë Sevigny, Kristen Stewart, Jay Huguley, Fiona Shaw, Jamey Sheridan, Kim Dickens, Denis O'Hare