Lizzie Borden (Christina Ricci) is arrested and put on trial when her father, Andrew (Stephen McHattie of XIII) and stepmother Abby (Sara Botsford of Murder By Phone), are axed to death about an hour apart in their own home. Lizzie's sister Emma (Clea DuVall) sticks up for her sister but has nagging doubts, and the whole town turns against them. This look at the famous, unsolved murders offers nothing new, has stick-thin characters, provides little motivation, and is awash in a rock score that is not only inappropriate but gives the whole project a mindless veneer. The acting is okay enough, although to be fair to Ricci she really isn't given much of a character to play. Lizzie's alleged lover, actress Nance O'Neil [Transgression], is briefly portrayed by Andria Wilson, but there is little about Lizzie's possible lesbianism or how it may have influenced prosecutors. The movie gets a lot wrong about the case -- it's as if the writer just threw together a script based on conjecture and other movies and didn't do any research.
Verdict: Not much to this by-the-numbers look at an infamous murder case. **.
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