Fashion Victim

The 1997 assassination of gay fashion icon Gianni Versace outside his luxury mansion in Miami has never been fully understood or explained. But this much underrated TV movie goes a long way towards redressing our confusions.

27 year old Andrew Cunanan was a rather tragic enigma. Perhaps he represented the frustrations faced by all of us as we gradually lose our youthful beauty and face the reality of needing to attract others with something more than sexual charm. Perhaps he was motivated by consuming jealousy, the fear of inadequacy or perpetual failure or even the manic terror of HIV infection. Or maybe he was simply suffering from a psychotic illness. We shall never really know but we are certainly given a fair insight by this really watchable version of events.

The acting may be a little amateurish in parts and the script in one or two scenes appears naive. But do not let this detract from the quality of this production. Jonathon Trent is perfectly cast as Cunanan and gives a quite believable performance. The pace is sharp and attention is maintained throughout. But most of all the story is accurate in many details and we are left with a vision into these events that is as close to reality as any film could achieve.