Plot

A beautiful but naïve aspiring television personality films a documentary on teenagers with a darker ulterior motive.

Suzanne Stone (Kidman) knows exactly what she wants. She wants to be a television newscaster and she is willing to do anything to get what she wants. What she lacks in intelligence, she makes up for in cold determination and diabolical wiles. As she pursues her goal with relentless focus, she is forced to destroy anything and anyone that may stand in her way, regardless of the ultimate cost or means necessary.—Tad Dibbern <DIBBERN_D@a1.mscf.upenn.edu>

In the coastal town of Little Hope, New Hampshire following the murder of Larry Maretto, family, friends and acquaintances of Larry and his wife, Suzanne Maretto (who goes professionally by her maiden name Suzanne Stone), are interviewed by the media about the Marettos and their marriage. Despite both Larry and Suzanne being attractive, the reason for their want to be husband and wife were not obvious to anyone else that knew them. Slightly dim and superficial but driven WASP Suzanne sees herself as the next Jane Pauley, being famous generally her goal in life. Blue collar and ethnic Italian Larry, who worked in the family restaurant, wanted Suzanne first and foremost to be a wife and mother, although he did support whatever she did to further her career. These interviews are in large part done because of the official and unofficial belief that Suzanne may have orchestrated Larry's murder. Larry's sister, figure skater Janice Maretto, does know deep in her heart that Suzanne is involved. Another person interviewed is Ed Grant, Suzanne's boss at a small second rate cable station. Although Ed only hired her to be a Girl Friday, a job he initially envisioned being filled by an unskilled teenager, she beat him down so much with her proposals to make herself an on-air personality that he eventually gave her a job as the station's on-air weather girl, which she morphed unilaterally into making her own documentaries. Others interviewed are Jimmy Emmett and Lydia Mertz, two of the subjects in Suzanne's documentary on teenagers. Jimmy and Lydia were delinquent and unfocused before meeting Suzanne, into whose life of fame and romance they easily got sucked. The primary question is if Larry's murderer(s) will be caught and if justice, especially in the eyes of those who truly care about Larry, most specifically his family, will be served.—Huggo

In Little Hope, New Hampshire, the beautiful and hot Suzanne Stone wants to be famous and is an aspiring TV personality. She marries Larry Maretto, whose father owns a restaurant, and convinces him to use this savings for the university buying a Mustang for her and a condo. Then she accepts to work for the local station receiving minimum wage to develop her own projects, including one with youths in a public school. She meets the punks Jimmy Emmett, Russel Hines and Lydia Mertz and records hours of tapes interviewing them. When Larry invites her to work at the restaurant in a talent show that he wants to implement, Suzanne sees a threat to her planned career and decides to get rid of her husband. She seduces Jimmy and convinces him that she is in love with him. Then she tells that Larry is a brutal man and Jimmy decides to kill him. What will happen to Larry?—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Kidman stars in this 1995 crime comedy-drama as Suzanne, a weathergirl on a local TV station who longs to be a high-flying star on Network television. When she feels that her middle-class husband (Matt Dillon) is holding her back, she decides to have him murdered by a teenage boy named Jimmy (Joaquin Phoenix).