I've had a mad crush on Brittany Murphy since I first saw her, in "Drive". I don't think I've ever seen so mesmerizing a combination of crazy, sexy, cute, innocent, impish, and vaguely dangerous. Me = smitten. She does it again here, with a tragic twist. It's hard to watch her now, and especially so in this one where her character dies young, knowing that she really did die young. RIP, you beautiful nut. <:'-( Gone oh, so much too soon.
FTR, I agree with the others who prefer her hair dark. It suited her so well. She somehow plays a perfect brunette blonde, if that makes any sense.
But anyway... this movie is very immersive, I think mostly due to the strong characters and the intensity of the developing situation. There's something about tragedy that is hard to look away from, and Brittany's charmingly dangerous innocence made her perfect for this role, as it drew the two together and also led to her poor decision-making, which put her at risk from her psycho lover. Just like Dubroski, we (or at least I) can't look away from her, even though there are red flags flying around this possible romance between them.
Some have complained of slow pacing, but I didn't notice that.
The review from the friend of the drummer son-in-law is interesting. Is the real-life Dubroski truly innocent? If so, I agree that a follow-up would make a good film, depicting "the rest of the story" or whatever. Still, this movie tells a story which, regardless of whether it's entirely true to the real-life events upon which it's based, does resonate.
The rest of the cast were also very good. Terri Garr in particular was a great choice for Mrs. Dubroski.