I Love You to Death (1990)

	Directed by: Lawrence Kasdan	COUNTRY USA GENRE Comedy NORWEGIAN TITLE Elsker deg til døde RUNNING TIME 96 minutes
	Produced by: Jeffrey Lurie
	Written by: John Kostmayer

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Joey Boca	Kevin Kline	½
Rosalie Boca	Tracey Ullman
Nadja	Joan Plowright	½
Devo Nod	River Phoenix
Harlan James	William Hurt	½
Marlon James	Keanu Reeves
Lieutenant Larry Schooner	James Gammon	-
Mrs. Boca	Miriam Margolyes	-
Bridget	Heather Graham	-
Uncredited	Phoebe Cates	-

Review

Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill) reunited his preferred 1980s leading man William Hurt with a rapaciously invigorated Kevin Kline for this often hilarious and exhausting black comedy. Kline plays an insensitive adulterer whose naïve wife (Tracy Ullman) adores him and is blind to all his flaws – until she one day catches him in the act. Her Yugoslavian mother Nadja (Joan Plowright) and her virtuous employee Devo (River Phoenix) are her allies in her quest for revenge. That the story is actually based on reality is so mind-boggling that you cannot help but feel that Kasdan should have been able to evoke a wider and more subtle range of emotions throughout his film – which ultimately becomes too one-note. He directs his actors as if they were characters in a Seinfeld episode, and it certainly appears that they are having fun. Kline’s impeccable comic timing carries him through, even if he overdoes his character and accent. Ullman’s performance is the most layered and least conspicuous. Hurt and Keanu Reeves are funny distractions, though they are indeed distractions. There is a sense of unfulfilled potential about I Love You to Death, and yet it works and has integrity within its own terms.