TO DIE FOR. Columbia, 1995. Nicole Kidman, Matt Dillon, Joaquin Phoenix, Casey Affleck, Illeana Douglas, Alison Folland, Dan Hedaya, Wayne Knight. Based on the novel by Joyce Maynard; screenwriter: Buck Henry. Director: Gus Van Sant.

   There doesn’t seem to be any way around it. In the course of talking about this movie, I’m going to have to reveal more about the story line than I’d really like to.

   I know what I’m talking about. I was watching the movie, which I’d just taped off HBO, when I needed to take a short break, and while I was up and about, I decided to check out who an actor was on IMDB. The first thing I saw was the key plot line that was coming up next but which I hadn’t yet gotten to.

   So just in case you haven’t seen the movie yet: POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT.

   The movie does begin, in grand pseudo-documentary fashion, with the death of Suzanne Stone’s husband. Apparently she’s been accused of being involved in his death, but how and why, we (the viewer) do not know.

   Nicole Kidman plays Suzanne Stone in one of most convincing performances I’ve ever seen. Ms. Stone (she does not use her married name, Maretto, for professional reasons), has talked her way into becoming the weather person for the local cable outlet, a small two-man operation that Stone is convinced is going to help her find her way to the top.

   Of the TV profession, that is. She is obsessed with television and the fame that comes to those who are on the screen; she will do anything, and work for the longest hours, to become a success.

   What she does not realize is how lacking she is, both in awareness of the world and opportunity. I’m not convinced that she has the ability, either, but that has never stopped others, and it probably wouldn’t stop her either, given the chance. Of course (as it happens) her husband of one year (Matt Dillon) does not share her dreams; he is content to help run his father’s low scale restaurant for the rest of his life.

   Deciding to do a documentary on local high school students, Suzanne Stone finds three slackers and unfortunates who are willing to help: Joaquin Phoenix, Casey Affleck, and Alison Folland, who find their own lives briefly brightened by her interest in them.

   They also become part of the plan Suzanne Stone is hatching. Her husband is becoming part of the ball and chain that is holding her back.

   I suppose that most mystery fans will put the pieces together well enough from here. Some of Suzanne Stone’s most convincing arguments take place in bed (a dim-witted but very virile Joaquin Phoenix) or making promises of taking Alison Folland, overweight and with no friends, along with her to Hollywood.

   As characters, two more pathetic creatures can hardly be imagined; as actor and actress respectively, both Phoenix and Folland are to be congratulated as highly as they can be.

   All of the performances are ‘A Prime,’ in fact, including especially Illeana Douglas, who as the dead man’s sister, can see right through her new sister-in-law’s facade in an instant. The latter’s a four-letter word that starts with C, she says. Cold.

   But Nicole Kidman’s performance is more than that. I may be the only person in the world who thinks so, but she makes Suzanne Stone also so vulnerable that I could only find pity for her, in spite of the deeds she does, especially in the end, when her fate finally catches up with her.

   It is very difficult to tell someone that their dreams are very likely not going to be realized, and that is the saddest part of this movie, I found, by far.