Lizzie

**_Could do with a bit more vitality, but the acting is superb_** _I knew there was an old axe down cellar; that is all I knew._ - Stefani Koorey quoting Lizzie Borden; _The Preliminary Hearing in the Lizzie Borden Case_ (2005) Written by Bryce Kass, and directed by Craig William Macneill, _Lizzie_ is based on the _cause célèbre_ of Lizzie Borden (not to be confused with director Lizzie Borden, or extreme porn star/director Lizzy Borden), who was accused and subsequently acquitted of the axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts in 1892, a crime that is still…

Chloë Sevigny is unremarkable here, as the eponymous daughter in the rather oppressive Borden household. When they hire a new maid "Bridget" (Kristen Stewart), the two become friends and as the plot thickens, the renowned story of her axe-wielding and it's aftermath is presented to us. Stewart always comes across for me as a sterile actress; it doesn't matter what part she plays, she always looks completely dead behind the eyes - and in a role, here, that requires a great deal of intensity, she just doesn't deliver. Indeed, much of the entire focus here seems to have less to do with the…

It's a re-imagined re-telling of an old whodunit. It's a decent movie if taken on its own merits. Every movie about historical events needn't be 100 percent factual. Creative license allows for historical accuracy to be bent or even broken. Kinda like with Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Were salient details about our 16th president's life left out of the history books? We know Borden and his wife were hacked to death and no one was ever convicted. If Lizzie did it and got away with it, how could we know? Every fact can't possibly be known by anyone who wasn't present, either physically or…