IN the movie, does CHeryl Ladd's character die at the end, or is she still alive til the last second?
She dies late in the movie but not all that close to the end of it. I'm not exactly sure of the order of events since I haven't seen it recently. I'll be back!
Here's the summary from Wikipedia (edited to delete incorrect information). Beware of **SPOILERS**:
Set in Seattle, Washington, this film follows the lives of a wealthy but dysfunctional American family. Sylvie Cooper (Sara Gilbert) is a misanthropic student at a private high school for the privileged. She befriends Ivy (Drew Barrymore), a poor but intelligent and seductive girl attending the school on a scholarship. Sylvie thinks Ivy is sweet but very different, and they become best friends after school. Ivy's actual name is unknown, as Sylvie bases it on a tattoo on Ivy's leg. Clearly, Ivy is envious of Sylvie's wealthy and privileged home life and sets out to derail the family one by one. Ivy gains the affection of Sylvie’s mother Georgie (Cheryl Ladd), who is dying and spends most of her time in the bedroom. It is implied that Ivy has moved out of her disruptive home life and moved in with Sylvie. Before an important party, Ivy receives a call for Sylvie about weekly music lessons. Knowing it’s the day of an important party, Ivy schedules the lessons for that day, causing tension between daughter and father (Tom Skerritt). During the party, Ivy openly flirts with Darryl. Soon after, she and Sylvie's father begin an affair. After a few weeks, Ivy finds Georgie contemplating suicide on the edge of the bedroom's balcony and pushes her off the edge.
One day, Ivy and Sylvie go for a ride in Georgie's Corvette, and Ivy begins humming a tune that sounds eerily similar to the music that was playing in Georgie's room the day she allegedly committed suicide~a recording of Sylvie's music. Sylvie questions whether or not Ivy was there and what was said. At that point, Ivy crashes the car, rendering Sylvie unconscious and headed for a hospital stay. Awakening in the hospital, Sylvie runs away, fearing that Ivy may have gotten to Darryl~which she has. Later, in Georgie's bedroom, Ivy suggests they become a family, at which point Sylvie attacks her, and the two struggle to the edge of the balcony~from which Sylvie pushes Ivy, who manages to hang onto Sylvie by her necklace, which breaks, causing Ivy to fall to her death. (I think that it ends with Sylvie's narration, but this should give you the gist of the film so that you can place where the death occurs.)
