“We live in this world and not another,” says one character at a key moment in “Lizzie.” The line captures the dilemma of two women whose passion will not be allowed in upper-crust 1892 New England.
But the words might also apply to the larger world they’re stuck in: an unfair system of haves and have-nots, including the awful treatment of women, both socially and sexually. In this world, some kind of insanity is not only possible but inevitable.
We might mention that the title refers to Lizzie Borden (played by Chloe Sevigny), one of the most infamous female names in American criminal history. It used to be infamous, anyway; do kids today still know the words “Lizzie Borden took an ax/And gave her mother forty whacks”? If they do, they also know that “When she saw what she had done/She gave her father forty-one.”
The enduring mystery of whether 31-year-old Lizzie killed her parents — and if so, why — is here given a fictional treatment that comes down firmly on Lizzie’s side, and even more on the side of the family maid, Bridget Sullivan (played by Kristen Stewart).
This approach doesn’t exonerate Lizzie, but let’s just say the portrait of this particular ax murderer gets a sympathetic slant in the #MeToo era.
Bryce Kass’ screenplay moves through the oppressive mood at the Borden mansion in Fall River, Massachusetts. Lizzie shames her father (Jamey Sheridan, recently of “Spotlight”) by attending social affairs without an escort, and earns the vague disapproval of her older sister (“Fear the Walking Dead” star Kim Dickens) and stepmother (Fiona Shaw).
Bridget’s arrival opens new possibilities in Lizzie’s life, both soulful and erotic. Sevigny (deserving of a lead role after a few years of doing supporting turns) and Stewart create effective chemistry together; Sevigny slyly suggests a hint of the cluelessness of privilege, and Stewart brings a wounded-animal desperation to Bridget, who is denied even the use of her own name — the Bordens call her Maggie, apparently on the theory that all Irish maids are called Maggie.
We know there will be blood, so each domestic skirmish is one more step toward a gory climax. “Lizzie” tries to sidestep sensationalism, stressing the poisonous paternalism exercised by Mr. Borden and his calculating brother-in-law, played with neurotic flair by Denis O’Hare.
Director Craig William Macneill chronicles this with a steady beat that becomes almost numbing. The acting is strong, but the movie is so sealed-off and doom-laden that it becomes oppressive itself. The exception is the murder sequence, which goes all the way, including an eerily slow pan across a room, from the unsuspecting stepmother to Lizzie, lurking naked in a corner with ax in hand. All these years later, the story still has the power to shock.
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