I Love You to Death is a 1990 American black comedy film directed by Lawrence Kasdan and starring an ensemble cast featuring Kevin Kline, Tracey Ullman, Joan Plowright, River Phoenix, William Hurt, and Keanu Reeves.

The screenplay by John Kostmayer is loosely based on an attempted murder that happened in 1983, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where Frances Toto repeatedly tried to kill her husband, Anthony.

[5] In Tacoma, Washington, Italian American Joey Boca goes to church, and in a confessional, admits to a priest to cheating on his wife Rosalie with at least seven women in the past two or three weeks.

A young employee at the restaurant, Devo, is in love with the much older Rosalie and tries to convince her to no avail that Joey is cheating on her and she deserves better.

Later, mother and daughter try to heavily dose Joey’s spaghetti with sleeping pills, but despite eating several large bowls full, he simply gets a stomach cramp and dismisses it as a virus.

They decide that nothing short of shooting will kill Joey, but neither Rosalie nor Nadja can bring themselves to pull the trigger.

As the medical examiner later reports, the sleeping pills have slowed down Joey’s metabolism, keeping him from bleeding to death.

Seeing the error of his ways and at his own mother's behest, Joey refuses to press charges and bails everyone out of jail.

While waiting for Rosalie with flowers and a box of chocolates, he meets the James cousins and makes peace.

Joey catches her and in the janitors' closet they reveal their love with some intimacy, much to Devo's dismay and the surprise of Rosalie's mother.

[8] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade C on scale of A to F.[9] Jonathan Rosenbaum, writing for the Chicago Reader, described the film as a "fair-to-middling black comedy" and that "although the pacing is sluggish in spots, people with a taste for acting as impersonation will enjoy some of the scenery chewing—especially by Plowright, Kline, and Hurt".

[11] Ebert remarks "William Hurt could have walked through the role of the spaced-out hit man, but takes the time to make the character believable and even, in a bleary way, complex".

While he lay wounded for five days in their bed at home, Frances tried to poison him with chicken soup that was laced with barbiturates.

"[15] The Tribune went on to report that what gained the event notoriety and a film is that Tony Toto not only forgave his wife Frances, but tried to convince the District Attorney to not press charges.

Tony reasoned that he had driven Frances to murder with his flagrant womanizing and "domineering and insensitive" behavior.