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Amos Lassen wrote on 03/01/2010:

“Murder in Fashion”

A Fictionalized Account of Andrew Cunanan

Amos Lassen

In the year 1997, Andrew Cunanan was listed by the FBI as one of the tem most wanted fugitives. He murdered five people before he committed suicide in Miami Beach. There was a nationwide manhunt after him but what really caught the attention of the world was that his fifth victim was Gianni Versace.
Jonathan Trent is Cunanan and he really plays the part. The film combines the murder spree with the FBI investigation and is also a commentary on how law enforcement distrusts the gay community.
There is a problem with the film and that is that it tries to do too much and therefore it loses focus. Had it just concentrated on Cunanan the man it would have been much more effective.
We see that Cunanan’s pursuit of beauty becomes self-destructive and one of the things the movie does do is show how men were rejected by the murderer because they did not live up to his standards of what beauty was. When he meets Versace who was the epitome of beauty, we watch how what how he rebels against his own ideals but ultimately rids the world of him. We also see how Cunanan pines over his “own fading beauty”. He becomes a narcissist who is self loathing.