I Love You To Death
In an all-star cast filled with multiple award-winning performers, Keanu Reeves and his scene partner William Hurt – himself an Oscar winner – steal an entire movie with the most hilariously executed portrayal of stoned hitmen.
I Love You To Death is based, very loosely, on the real life case of Frances and Anthony Toto, and features Kevin Kline and Tracey Ullman as Joey and Rosalie Boca – owners of a popular pizza parlour. Rosalie is devastated when she discovers that Joey is actually a prolific womanizer, and sets about trying to kill him, with the help of her mother – played by Joan Plowright – and her co-worker/secret admirer, Devo, played by River Phoenix. When their attempts to poison him fail, Devo recruits two drug-infused hitmen to finish the job in what is supposed to be a more professional manner.
Appearing as Marlon and Harlan James, Keanu Reeves and William Hurt deliver a comedic tour de force as they stumble into the situation, and gaze upon the unfolding events through a narcotic haze. Their physical reactions and verbal musings are perfectly matched to each other, while being the necessary five beats behind everyone else in the film – a contrast that provides the majority of laughs.
While the film is filled with fantastic moments for the pair – such as Reeves being startled by an inflatable dinosaur – it is the longer sequences that are the most delicious. Legendary director Lawrence Kasdan takes Reeves and Hurt’s biggest scenes, and allows them to unfold in deliberately paced, unhurried fashion. Negotiating their fee with a straight-faced, disguised River Phoenix, planning how to kill Kevin Kline, and even their patriotic, fumbled pledge of allegiance, ending with Reeves requesting that America “deliver us from freedom” – I Love You To Death contains a masterclass in comedy from Keanu Reeves.
