The life of Lizzie Borden, a young smart school teacher, who has a miserable life, has been changed completely, when she finds herself accused of a murder of her father and stepmother, the thing that challenges her.
It's slow and heavy-handed, tedious almost throughout. An average episode of Oxygen's Snapped isn't this dull, and has more interesting things to say about women who kill.
Lifetime has a knack for attracting top-tier talent for what often ends up being silly little movies, but Lizzie Borden seemed different -- everyone was having a lot of fun without getting too over-the-top campy.
Lifetime's made-for-TV movie Lizzie Borden Took an Axe covers the events of the murder and ensuing trial, but doesn't really get any deeper into the crime than the schoolyard chant does.
The movie ends on such a note as to cause the audience to wonder how long it will take before "A," of Pretty Little Liars fame, starts leaving Lizzie Borden an incriminating text or two.
Lizzie comes across more as a whiny, moody teen than a psychotic murderess, and Ricci is much-too-attractive to play the dowdy, crazy-eyed Lizzie familiar from those faded black-and-white photos (just sayin').
The lack of focus, and a protagonist who seemingly can't decide which movie she's in, makes this Lifetime movie a slick but unsatisfying swing and a miss.
Included are the trial and all the trimmings. What's missing is the horror of the event. Except for a few shots of dear old daddy's caved-in face, there's not much gore, even for a TV movie.
The movie itself apparently isn't sure the murders themselves are lurid enough. So it adds a few things that didn't happen, plus some 21st-century music.
