What a pity! I've been a great fan of Ricci's since her "Addams Family" days; while her performance (with the so-called "script" she was given with which to work) was certainly more than adequate, with moments here and there of real genius and subtlety, it must be said that she was terribly miscast as Lizzie Borden. As for the script itself, the less said the better! Any moment in which an actual historical fact was presented seems to have been purely accidental, and I have the feeling that, had anyone bothered to do the least amount of research, even those few accuracies would have been cut out at once.
I have been to the Borden house several times over the years, spent the night in both the murder guest room and Lizzie's own bedroom. The Borden house is structurally almost exactly as it was at the time of the murders. Great care has been taken to reproduce the layout and furnishings of the home. To visit the house is to go back in time. I have read everything I could get my hands on about the murders. When I was a local Massachusetts radio host, I interviewed many Lizzie experts. I have been to the Fall River cemetery where all the Bordens are buried side by side; and to the historical society, where some very grotesque artifacts can be viewed. I was so excited to see what Lifetime would do with the story, and was disappointed in everything except Christina Ricci. The errors were rampant, and the real story, and real venue, is so creepy and compelling there was absolutely NO reason for improvising or reinventing the facts. Not in any particular order, but here are just a few of the errors and omissions I found in this movie: 1. The exterior of the house did NOT look like the house in the movie. No second floor balcony, and the front door to the real Borden house is on the far right. When you enter the home, all the rooms in the house are either to the left of the front door or ahead of you, and the staircase is right in front of the front door; it is steep with no landings. Therefore anyone could have seen Mrs. Borden's body from a certain point going up or down the stairs, not from the second floor as the movie depicted. 2. The dress was burnt not outdoors, but in the kitchen stove, in the company of both Alice and Emma. Emma and Lizzie told Alice it was being burnt because it had PAINT on it. 3. The testimony about Lizzie trying to buy the prussic acid was excluded from the real trial. 4. There was no mention of John Morse, the brother of Lizzie and Emma's late mother, who came to visit the night before and spent the night in the guest room. 5. The bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Borden were not taken away that first night, they remained lying on the dining room table. 6. Mr. Borden did not fully recline on the sofa, because he was too tall. He lay his head on a pillow with his feet on the floor. It is thought that the killer concealed his/herself in the dining room, then attacked from around the corner and struck the back of Mr. Borden's head. Other things that were not exactly errors but omissions: no compelling motive was given for Lizzie's acts. In reality, Lizzie and Emma were concerned about Mr. Borden changing his will. The miserliness of Andrew Borden, one of the richest men in Fall River, forced the family to live in a modest house away from the grand homes and fine neighborhoods of their social peers, and thus diminished the sisters' chances to marry a social equal. There actually was an incident of an axe murder at the time of Lizzie's trial. While it was referred to in the movie, it was not linked to the decisive swiftness of the not-guilty verdict, but in reality all the jurors were aware of the incident. Lastly, there were so many missed opportunities in this movie. The actual creepy cellar with the dry well where it is thought Lizzie cleaned up. And most importantly, the peculiar layout of the Borden house, where nearly every room opened up into another, making it nearly impossible for an outside killer to hide between the two murders. I really hope that one day somebody will make a movie that tells the whole story of the Borden murders, or as much as is historically known. Truth IS stranger than fiction, and this movie should have told the whole truth.
What a pity! I've been a great fan of Ricci's since her "Addams Family" days; while her performance (with the so-called "script" she was given with which to work) was certainly more than adequate, with moments here and there of real genius and subtlety, it must be said that she was terribly miscast as Lizzie Borden. As for the script itself, the less said the better! Any moment in which an actual historical fact was presented seems to have been purely accidental, and I have the feeling that, had anyone bothered to do the least amount of research, even those few accuracies would have been cut out at once.
I have been to the Borden house several times over the years, spent the night in both the murder guest room and Lizzie's own bedroom. The Borden house is structurally almost exactly as it was at the time of the murders. Great care has been taken to reproduce the layout and furnishings of the home. To visit the house is to go back in time. I have read everything I could get my hands on about the murders. When I was a local Massachusetts radio host, I interviewed many Lizzie experts. I have been to the Fall River cemetery where all the Bordens are buried side by side; and to the historical society, where some very grotesque artifacts can be viewed. I was so excited to see what Lifetime would do with the story, and was disappointed in everything except Christina Ricci. The errors were rampant, and the real story, and real venue, is so creepy and compelling there was absolutely NO reason for improvising or reinventing the facts. Not in any particular order, but here are just a few of the errors and omissions I found in this movie: 1. The exterior of the house did NOT look like the house in the movie. No second floor balcony, and the front door to the real Borden house is on the far right. When you enter the home, all the rooms in the house are either to the left of the front door or ahead of you, and the staircase is right in front of the front door; it is steep with no landings. Therefore anyone could have seen Mrs. Borden's body from a certain point going up or down the stairs, not from the second floor as the movie depicted. 2. The dress was burnt not outdoors, but in the kitchen stove, in the company of both Alice and Emma. Emma and Lizzie told Alice it was being burnt because it had PAINT on it. 3. The testimony about Lizzie trying to buy the prussic acid was excluded from the real trial. 4. There was no mention of John Morse, the brother of Lizzie and Emma's late mother, who came to visit the night before and spent the night in the guest room. 5. The bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Borden were not taken away that first night, they remained lying on the dining room table. 6. Mr. Borden did not fully recline on the sofa, because he was too tall. He lay his head on a pillow with his feet on the floor. It is thought that the killer concealed his/herself in the dining room, then attacked from around the corner and struck the back of Mr. Borden's head. Other things that were not exactly errors but omissions: no compelling motive was given for Lizzie's acts. In reality, Lizzie and Emma were concerned about Mr. Borden changing his will. The miserliness of Andrew Borden, one of the richest men in Fall River, forced the family to live in a modest house away from the grand homes and fine neighborhoods of their social peers, and thus diminished the sisters' chances to marry a social equal. There actually was an incident of an axe murder at the time of Lizzie's trial. While it was referred to in the movie, it was not linked to the decisive swiftness of the not-guilty verdict, but in reality all the jurors were aware of the incident. Lastly, there were so many missed opportunities in this movie. The actual creepy cellar with the dry well where it is thought Lizzie cleaned up. And most importantly, the peculiar layout of the Borden house, where nearly every room opened up into another, making it nearly impossible for an outside killer to hide between the two murders. I really hope that one day somebody will make a movie that tells the whole story of the Borden murders, or as much as is historically known. Truth IS stranger than fiction, and this movie should have told the whole truth.