User Reviews

There are many films that revolve around fatal women, who use sensuality and seduction for obscure purposes. In fact, there are even women in real life who do it skillfully. In the film before us, we will face perhaps one of the most perverse and diabolical female minds that cinema has ever known.

In fact, I have no other adjectives for Bridget Gregory, a woman who looks angelic and the kind of wife our mother always dreamed of for us, until we see her dark side. The film elaborates a web of intrigue and malice where Bridget is the main character, the spider in the middle of the web, ready to devour his male prey. She was married to a guy who traffics in drugs, but decides to run away and take with her a huge amount of trafficking money, which infuriates her husband (any husband, I think). She hides in a small town where she decides to settle down without being noticed. She meets Mike Swale and quickly becomes involved with him, to the point of convincing him to kill her husband... without him knowing that he is, in fact, her husband.

The success of the film is largely based on a well-written script by Steve Barancik and a very intelligent direction by John Dahl. Some scenes, like the bar scene where Mike tries to seduce Bridget and ends up seduced by her, are truly anthological, and although this is not a very explicit film (some teen films show much more skin than this one), it gives us with some of the most perverse and hotest sex scenes in cinema (regular commercial cinema, I'm not taking into account porn films), not so much for what it shows but for the intensity, beauty and commitment of the cast.

In the middle of the cast only one name stands out and it is around him that the whole film is built: Linda Fiorentino got, with this film, the most remarkable work of her career. She is viciously wicked, cruel, cynical, malevolent and highly seductive. The way she worked on the character is almost palpable. Bill Pullman and Peter Berg are also very good and interact perfectly with Fiorentino, but she is the one who carries the lead and makes the whole movie work.

Being a film that is a neo-noir with touches of satirical comedy in the middle, the most notable technical aspect is clearly cinematography, which wisely uses light and shadow. However, it is not a film as dark as most noir films, nor as dark in the way it approaches themes. The comedy is there, the satire is present and it lightens the atmosphere, makes the film more fun and less dense. The dialogues are incredible and deserve our full attention, as well as the scenarios and the superb soundtrack, by Joseph Vitarelli.

I loved this one because I couldn't get over the heights of carnality and the depths of sociopathic evil the characters were capable of achieving. Linda Fiorentino played perhaps the most despicably rotten, heartless, conniving, using bitch I've ever had the pleasure of watching. Pullman was great as the reaper of retribution intent on giving evil for evil. Peter Berg may have stolen the show with his total inability to say no to his own destruction. It was hard to believe the abyss of stupidity these 2 dopes had the capacity to plumb. Guess that's what happens when the little head takes over the thought processes for the big head, eh? The picture started out a little slow but developed into a real blowout with a jaw dropping finale. All the folks got exactly what they deserved. All of them.

An incredibly amoral and very sexy woman (Linda Fiorentino) is on the lam from her husband (Bill Pullman) after stealing thousands of dollars from him. She travels to a small town and gets involved with a sweet, innocent man (Peter Berg)...but he's just her next victim.

There's a lot more to it but I won't give it away. The plot is intricate with many twists and turns. The dialogue sounds like it came from a 1940s noir (updated with swearing) but this isn't anything like those movies. This movie has graphic sex scenes and incredibly cruel acts that they could never get away with back then. It also has good acting by Berg and Pullman (who is very obviously enjoying himself). There's also good direction by John Dahl and an excellent score by Joseph Vitarelli which totally fits the tone of the film. But it's Fiorentino's show all the way--she's on screen almost all the time and her performance is superb. She's sexy and evil and actually enjoys using people--notice how she laughs after a few evil acts. Too bad this film premiered on cable--if it were a theatrical film first she would have been up for Best Actress.

Only two quibbles--at 110 minutes the nonstop evil and cruelty wears you down and I didn't buy a few things that happened at the climax. They seemed really unlikely and spoiled things a little. But those are minor complaints.

This is a good, evil film noir--well worth catching.

Fiorentino has a field day as one of the most despicable women ever to be featured in a film. Her character is tough, self-centered, mean-spirited, and sexy femme fatale who absconds with her husband's drug money and tries to get her ninny of a boyfriend to kill him. The plot is quite contrived and the characters bear no resemblance to real people, with Fiorentino appearing to be a genius in a world of dim-witted men. The acting is pretty good. Berg is likable as Fiorentino's boyfriend, a decent fellow who has to balance his hormones with his morality. Pullman seems to be having fun playing the betrayed spouse. The score sets the right mood.

This is the story of Bridget (Linda Fiorentino), a tall (5'7"), slender, throaty voiced brunette who cheats her husband (Bill Pullman) out of some drug money and runs for it. She heads to "cow country" where she hooks up with nice guy Mike (Peter Berg) and makes him her designated [BLEEP]. But when her husband comes knocking on her door intending to take back his money (and sends a series of guys after her) Bridget gets ready to kill him and set Mike up for the fall.

Had this been properly released in theaters, it could very well have put Fiorentino on the map, maybe even gotten her an Oscar for best actress in the role of the femme fatale. I wasn't exactly rooting for her, but she sure was compelling to watch and very sexy.

And speaking of sexy, the film features some very powerful sex scenes that put just about everything we've ever seen in the James Bond films to shame. Oh what a Bond girl Linda Fiorentino would have made, and after seeing her stripped naked here, you'll agree.

"The Last Seduction" was produced with theatrical distribution in mind, but it premiered on cable TV, thereby ensuring that Linda Fiorentino's sultry performance--the most acclaimed by a female in 1994--would be disqualified for Oscar consideration. Too bad. She would likely have claimed the prize for her smolderingly sexy turn as a promiscuous man killer. Other than Fiorentino, this film is strictly OK, a modern R-rated update of the kind of 1940's melodramas that offered Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, and Barbara Stanwyck some of their meatiest roles.

Director John Dahl presents modern Film-Noir. A strong minded woman(Linda Fiorentino)runs away with her husband's(Bill Pullman)profits from a drug deal leaving him to face his loan shark. She finds another town and another man(Peter Berg)to manipulate. Interesting cat and mouse plot with some spontaneous sex thrown in. The combustible kind! It is doubtful you would fall asleep after this one kicks into gear. The sultry Fiorentino knows the ways to be wicked. J.T. Walsh is also notable. Can you say sizzle?

Bridget Gregory (Linda Fiorentino) is a telemarketing manager running a croaked boiler room. Her husband Clay Gregory (Bill Pullman) sells stolen pharmaceuticals for a big payday. She steals his money and leaves NYC. She stops at Beston on her way to Chicago. Mike Swale (Peter Berg) is tired of small town girls. She walks into the bar and he's smitten. Her lawyer Frank Griffith (J.T. Walsh) tells her to stay put while he starts the divorce. She gets a job as Wendy Kroy but Mike happens to work at the company. Clay is desperate to pay off a loan shark and manages to track her to an area code. Then he figures out that New York backwards is Wen Kroy and sends Harlan (Bill Nunn) to find Wendy.

The bar scene is terrific and it's all about Linda Fiorentino. That goes for the whole movie. Her character is a real piece. Peter Berg is a good sucker and Bill Pullman is a good sleaze. It's surprisingly funny at times. It's all attitude and Fiorentino is dripping in it. Her dialog is neo-noir and snappy. I love the dark turns and her glee with making those turns.

A devious sexpot steals her husband's drug money and hides out in a small town where she meets the perfect dupe for her next scheme.

The rumor is that this film was intended to be a "skin flick" but the people involved wanted to make something a little bit better. What they ended up with was a thriller not unlike "Basic Instinct" and "Fatal Attraction". In a world full of stupid men, a crafty woman can control her destiny.

How well this film is known, I do not know. I wasn't aware of it. But enough people have rated it on IMDb that it must have been big at the time. Heck, there are rumors that it almost got an Oscar nomination. (Lots of "rumors" with this film... not sure what to believe.)

One of my favorite films. Linda Fiorentino is wonderful as the evil Bridgit. Your mouth keeps dropping open as you say "She can't be about to do that," and then she does. When I first saw the film in a packed theater the audience was audibly gasping at some of the plot twists. Do yourself a favor if you're seeing it for the first time, go in knowing nothing at all about the story. Part of the fun is the rollar coaster ride of what happens next. Highly recommended!

Although Linda Fiorentino creates almost a parody of a femme fatale and Peter Berg looks so everyday that watching him getting seduced is a little too close for comfort, this erotic thriller by John Dahl (Red Rock West, Rounders) has a sense of realism and intelligence to it that elevates it above the cut in this genre. The cat-and-mouse-game in here is not about physical chases and close calls, but about assumed identities, hiding out in plain sight in small towns, and communicating via word games. The picture is clever, stylish and plays by its own rules, although whatever impression it makes is likely to be fleeting and you probably won't care much for any of the characters.

Director John Dahl's stylish film noir `Red Rock West' couldn't find a distributor, played on cable television and then was picked up by a San Francisco moviehouse where it set attendance records. If you think its subsequent success taught Hollywood suits anything, you just aren't cut out for the movie business.

With an even better script by Steve Barancik, Dahl found the ideal lead to play the very fatale femme of `The Last Seduction.' Linda Fiorentino, someone else who hasn't been well served by Hollywood, gave one of the great performances of the 1990s as Bridget/Wendy. Her no-holds-barred potrayal perfectly matched Barancik's uncompromising writing. Fiorentino deserved an Oscar, but didn't qualify because this film also went straight to cable before finding a distributor and becoming a hit.

Limited resources can focus the mind. Dahl isn't the most sweepingly visual of directors, but he can provide the occasional arresting scene. With a small but outstanding cast of what were then B-list actors, everyday settings and a tiny budget, the director kept `The Last Seduction' focused on the basics needed to make this genre work.

Without revealing too much of the plot, Bridget is on the lam after stealing $700,000 in drug proceeds from her sleazy, abusive husband, well played by Bill Pullman just before he became a good-guy leading man. The late great J.T. Walsh is smooth as a silk suit as Bridget's attorney, who appreciates a cold-hearted bitch. Bill Nunn does yeoman work as the detective on her trail.

But the key to this sort of black widow movie is a willing sap, and Peter Berg makes one of the best. A lean slice of beecake, he's back in his small town after a disastrous fling in the big city, that is, Buffalo. He's looking to get out again, and when Bridget breezes into the local shot-and-beer joint with her `city trash' attitude, he's done for.

As another reviewer chooses to emphasize, with her skinny legs and barely pubescent, pancake-flat chest Linda Fiorentino is the scrawniest femme fatale in the history of film noir. But that just makes her and her character's progress more amusing. Like Bridget, Fiorentino gets over on attitude more than pulchritude.

While Fiorentino's physique won't make women viewers jealous, many respond enthusiastically to the sex scene where Bridget rides Berg's Mike against a fence behind the bar. In fact, there's hardly a standard bedroom scene: most of the sex is of the right-now kind. And while both seem to enjoy themselves a lot, Bridget is clearly in control, emotionally and physically.

In recent years, we've gotten used to zaftig super-women like Xena throwing men around. But perhaps not since the heyday of Diana Rigg on `The Avengers' has there been a thin, flat-chested woman who dominates males like Linda Fiorentino takes care of business here. Bridget certainly isn't a role model, but her enthusiasm for her work is infectious.

This movie also has the courage of its convictions. If it seems amoral, well just about every Arnold Schwartzenegger movie celebrates massive killing by so-called `good guys.' The only difference between this movie and Hollywood's standard murderous agit-prop is that `The Last Seduction' has a brain.

Unfortunately, great work doesn't always bring great rewards. Fiorentino was good in Kevin Smith's ramshackle low-budget `Dogma,' only to be dissed by the director. She was one of the best elements of the equally ramshackle but costly `Men in Black,' only to be booted from the sequel for more compliant girls. (In Hollywood's homoerotic subtext, `buddy movie' means no women allowed.)

Fiorentino did hook up aagin with John Dahl in the highly forgettable `Unforgettable,' weighed down by a bigger budget, second-rate script and Ray Liotta. Both the director and his leading lady are still in play, though, so we can hope they will find other siutations worthy of their talents. And if not, Linda Fiorentino makes `The Last Seduction' unforgettable.

First things first. I know that this movie is about a femme fatale who preys on men using her sexuality and manipulation, so I don't expect her to be a good girl. But this woman just gets away with too much. The men are just witless pawns to whatever game she plays, even a street smart PI. The scene in her jeep is just laughable. The film would have definitely benefited from a worthy adversary chasing her down. I could imagine a scene with Denis Farina as a cop putting a good scare in Fiorentino's character in the smoky bar.

All that said, the movie is finely acted and finely done. It hits some right notes on small town values and the way people treat each other compared to city-folk. The way the seen it all bartender treats Fiorentino's character near the start says it all. Peter Berg is great as the naive, small town boy with big dreams who is looking for a way out. But this is Linda Fiorentino's film and she absolutely sizzles as the cold hearted, manipulative, scheming predatory bitch. She is unattainable, sexy and smart, causing men to rise to the challenge, thereby allowing her to play the dominant role. To all you guys who think that they are in charge in their relationship, watch this film and beware!

I also enjoyed the ending. It does not fall into the usual Hollywood cliché of bad people getting their just due. A scary film for all single guys looking for Mrs. Right.

This film comes off sharp and clever on first viewing. But our local cable station plays it often. The more times one sees it, the more the holes in the plot are obvious. Every character is written 'dumb' to Fiorentino's 'smart'. One big example. A private detective is hired to keep her under surveillance. He knows she's dangerous. She offers him cookies. He's so dumb and gluttonous, he actually eats them.

Then she goes off in a taxi to do her nefarious deeds. She has punctured the taxi driver's tire, so he can't follow her. What's dumb? Even I got a view of the name of the color of the taxi.

Why didn't the dumb detective, who knew her address, just get in touch with the taxi company, find out which driver had picked her up at that address at that time and find out where she'd gone from the driver? Not only are the characters 'written dumb' but the writers think the audiences are stupid. That's just one of many many holes in the plot of this not 'evil' but rather 'mean-spirited' movie.

I love this film. It's an absolute breath of fresh air. Those who can't deal with the "immorality" of this film are drunk on Hollywood happy-ending sap and are blind to the realities of human nature. Guess what, in real life, more often than not, the bad guys don't get punished. If movies about the white hats winning in the end make you feel better about the reality of what usually happens in life, more power to you.

How many times have we cheered on a bad guy despite ourselves, even though we know he's bad, just because he's so charming and sexy? Why not the same of a woman? She's evil, she's manipulative, she gets what she wants. I love it. Would I want to meet someone like this in real life? Of course not. Do I find her behavior acceptable? Of course not, it's absolutely reprehensible. But this is a movie, it's entertainment, and the world is already full of bad-guys-get-it-in-the-end fantasies, orgies of violence that are only excused by the fact that the person being destroyed is a "bad guy" - why can't I relish in a fantasy of a brilliant and amoral woman triumphing over the stupid and trusting (and yes, people can really be that stupid, even smart people.) We want to believe in the essential goodness of mankind, but unfortunately, in the real world as in this movie, villains often capitalize on that need to believe for their own benefit.

Linda Fiorentino is absolutely amazing in this movie, I really wish she would get more work, her talents are completely underutilized. Sexy, smart, and in control. Bill Pullman is his usual wonderful self, and there are many other excellent supporting performances from the likes of J.T. Walsh (RIP) and Peter Berg.

Linda Fiorentino gives a sexy, one-of-a-kind performance in this intriguing thriller. I've always said that I've had the hots for her. She is both attractive and sexy. I felt seduced every minute she was on screen. My minor problem is the casting of Peter Berg in the lead. He is too dry and dull for this sort of role. At moments it felt like he was reading the lines off the script. Bill Pullman brings a great quirkiness to his supporting role. And underrated actor Bill Nunn is great as the tight-fisted private eye. I like the score, which contradicts the dark, noirish tone giving an eccentric feel to the film.

My score: 7 (out of 10)

"The Last Seduction" from 1994 is a modern noir that succeeds mostly due to the performance of Linda Fiorentino, who makes Kathleen Turner in Body Heat look like Zasu Pitts.

Fiorentino plays Bridget Gregory, who steals a fortune in drug money from her husband (Bill Pullman) and goes on the run. She ends up in a small town, Beston, while getting gas for her car, and meets Mike (Peter Berg), a frustrated man who wants to leave Beston. He did live in Buffalo, but all he will say is that it didn't work out. He wears a wedding ring that he can't get off, though he's no longer married. He and Bridget become sex partners, though he wants a more meaningful relationship. However, she won't give him any information about herself.

Bridget then gets a job at an insurance company and convinces the bosses to let her work under another name because her vicious husband is after her. She hatches a murder for hire scheme using insurance company records, targeting philandering men who have credit cards in the names of women other than their wives along with love nests, where she convinces the wives their husbands are better off dead. Mike is horrified and wants no part of it. He will have to be persuaded. Somehow.

Some elegant twists in this noir, along with a dark, steamy atmosphere. Fiorentino is one of those unfortunate cases of stardom eluded, probably due to choosing parts and films that interested her rather than films that had commercial value. Many films she's made have not been able to get distribution.

She is gangbusters as Bridget - beautiful, sexy, ruthless, possibly one of the most ruthless women ever in films. She liked the role because the character had no conscience and no vulnerability. It's a performance deserving of all the awards she was either nominated for or received, but Golden Globe and Oscar attention would have been nice.

Good movie, highly recommended.

"The Last Seduction" is all about Fiorentino, a NYC hardened vixen and man-ipulator who spends the whole flick using her guile and unscrupulous ways to separate her husband from their his ill gotten gains. A well crafted, well cast, and not-to-be-taken-seriously darkish flick which gets out of the blocks quick and keeps you thinking and guessing all the way to the conclusion. Light entertainment for adults on cable.

I think that this movie is more in European movie-making style than most of its other Hollywood movies from the same genre. It has a different way of storytelling, different more straight-forward characters and dialogs and of course sex and nudity. I think that director John Dahl feels more at ease with directing movies more in an European kind of style than in the typical Hollywood-style. It's maybe also the reason why none of his movies ever became a commercial success, though his movies definitely have quality.

Nevertheless, for a genre movie this movie was just lacking too much to consider it a completely successful one. For too long the story just moves on and happens without a clear indication at what the direction the movie is heading to. Maybe I was just expecting the movie to be more fun. The movie is now more of a serious crime/thriller with some slight comical undertones, that are mostly notable in some of its characters. But nevertheless, I feel that it's a big miss that they didn't made the movie any more fun by for instance adding some more plot lines, with different characters, all trying to hunt down Bridget Gregory/Wendy Kroy, for whatever reason.

Now instead there isn't always enough happening and developing in the movie. It doesn't make the movie the most tense, exciting or even most original one out of its genre.

The story on its own is quite good and interesting, in which a manipulative, beautiful, intelligent woman is trying to trick a man in killing her husband, of whom she has stolen close to a million dollar of him. It's interesting to see the manipulative and intelligent woman at work, by throwing in her looks and sexual-abilities, to get what she wants. It's a real femme fatale.

It really helps the movie that it has such as fine, strong, leading femme fatale, played by Linda Fiorentino, who definitely fits the role. It's not necessarily her acting but its more her character that makes the movie work out. It's sort of suiting for the '90's, when lots of strong female character-roles arose. The other roles in this movie are limited down too much to my regret. Bill Pullman is good in this movie but he basically is only in the beginning and end of the movie. J.T. Walsh gets also extremely underused in a way too small role, that seemed like a fun one with more potential to it.

This movie also seriously made me think about something. The movie made me realize that the '90's just wasn't the decade for movies, when it comes down to style. I'm talking about visual style but also definitely about the costumes and hair. It's all pretty bleach and style-less, especially the early '90's, if you compare it to any other random decade of movie-making. But oh well, who knows. maybe in 50 years from now people shall praise this movie for having a typical great '90's style!

Good enough movie but just not the must-see I heard it was.

7/10

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American director John Dahl's film "The Last Seduction" has been described as a 'film noir'.This is not a very apt description for a film which has numerous comedy and drama elements in its screenplay. Based on an original screenplay his film depicts how some men are fooled by a beautiful looking vicious woman who would go to any extent to earn money.Although the film begins in New York city there is much to learn about American culture once its action shifts to a small town.It is funny to watch how there are hardly any black people in that town.Moreover,the attitude of town's inhabitants is extremely partial when they see a black man in their midst.Domestic violence has come to be known as a global problem.This film is one of the few crime films which did not choose to ignore the depiction of domestic violence in order to distance itself from society's ills.Apart from actress Linda Florentino's performance as an outstanding "femme fatale",there are nice performances by Bill Pullman and Peter Berg as idiots who allow a beautiful looking lady crook to fool them.

It has the kind of plot that people who write crime thrillers dream up daily, I would guess. Wife steals megabucks from criminal husband and takes off. Husband finally tracks down wife and tries to get money back. Wife cold-bloodedly seduces innocent man into helping her. Ending similar to "Body Heat" -- I think.

If everyone involved had taken this junk seriously it would barely have been watchable. Instead, though, they seem to have recognized the absurdity of the whole thing and, using a good deal of humor, sometimes subtle humor, they sail breezily along and take the viewer with them.

Linda Fiorentino is the wife, the central character, and she's a knockout. She's not just beautiful. She's given a long black mane which she has to swish back from time to time, glorious tresses that any normal man would want to run his toes through. To keep the hair out of her face she constantly tilts her head back so that she seems to be looking down on the person she's speaking to. And she has a voice that is snotty and aggressive without being the least unfeminine. She's also given to making phone calls in the nude, a very nice artistic touch.

The husband is Bill Pullman. He gives a riotous performance, playing every line for laughs. Woken up at night by a gun-toting intruder who claims he is a burglar, Pullman blinks and says wearily, "I thought you were the new interior decorator." And he always seems to rob his dialog of any truth value by delivering it out of the side of his mouth, while looking out of the sides of his eyes.

Peter Berg is the sap. He's not a bad actor as far as it's possible to tell, but his chief virtue in this movie is his appearance. He LOOKS like a patsy, tall but slightly built, his eyes set close together, no nose to speak of, and a small mouth that is perpetually open. His voice is designed for the part too. He could be the Elisha Cook, Jr., of his generation.

I don't know if Berg's lines were intended to be funny but they are. He has the dialog that usually belongs to the woman in these kinds of movies. Linda Fiorentino is a narcissistic, openly deceitful slut, who makes love like a mink. After spending a night with Berg, a stranger, she hauls some breakfast out of his fridge, an apple pie with a note on to: "Love, Grandma." She nibbles a piece and spits it out on the table. She's ruthless with Berg, telling him nothing about herself, and calling him her "designated ****." Poor Berg is blind to her manipulations, begging her for "talk." "I don't feel we share enough," and "I'd like some kind of commitment from you" -- things like that -- as if he'd been watching nothing but Lifetime Movie Network. No kidding. When she demands something more than usually outrageous from him, he says, "Excuse ME?" And when she oozes into the shower stall behind him he remarks with a bit of irritation, "Can't a man have a little privacy?"

Michalek's wardrobe and Vitarelli's score ought to be mentioned too. Fiorentino is almost always decked out in eye-catching black and white outfits, generally of some loose thin flowing material just aching to be removed. The score is in 3/4 time (or maybe it's 6/8) and incorporates a slow bluesy piano as well as a bouncier theme that is orchestrated with lead clarinets so it sounds like an Israeli hora. It neatly combines both mystery and an ironic humor.

The movie is hardly a masterpiece but it's nicely put together and enjoyable if you're not looking for ontological Angst.

Fiorentino as a self-serving bitch who manipulates her way around two men and $700,000. Plot twists and real suspense never lets your attention wander. Pullman is particularly good at coming across just as demented as Linda's character, even though he has nothing much to do. Contrasts small town life with big city mentality, both shown to their worst advantage.

Okay, first thing I'd like to say is that having your protagonist smoke a lot, making shallow and obvious references to "Double Indemnity" and having a Femme Fatale does not instantly make a film a modern Noir. Not by a long way.

As it happens I've been watching a lot of classic and modern Noirs lately and this film really doesn't fit in with any of those. I've watched Chinatown, L.A.Confidential, Grifters, The Spanish Prisoner and probably most similar Body Heat, all recently. They all come across as having enough Noir elements to justify the tag and having watched those mixed in with the likes of The Big Sleep, Double Indemnity, Scarlet Street and Sunset Blvd (all over the last month or so), I feel like I'm in a good position to make that judgement . This film just doesn't fit in with those (and not in a good way either). It's not the only film wrongly labelled as Modern Noir IMHO, I'd say "Bound" is too, but at least that film was half decent and didn't seem to be making a pitch for that tag.

Okay, so the Femme Fatale in this film is also the protagonist. That's fine. But she is so transparent and so obviously a total bitch that she's not doing a very good job of it all. Certainly not compared to Femme Fatales from the classic Noirs. It's not that Fiorentino's performance is bad (or that of any others in the film) it's just the whole story is so terrible and unbelievable the best acting performance in the world couldn't save it.

Fortunatly for her character all the men she is surround with (aside from a lawyer she only phones) are so mind numbingly stupid, naive and gullible that she can still control them to her ends. The trouble with that is it's not terribly believable. The worst of these is her new boyfriend Mike, who bring stupidity and naivety to a new level. This is made worse by the fact that we are meant to believe he is a competent claims adjuster for an insurance company. He must cost the company millions! The worst problem with this is that you are left with absolutely no sympathy for any of the male characters in the film and in some cases you kind of feel they deserve what they get for being so dumb. For me that makes for a bad film.

This film came across to me like a film that was trying to be a modern noir, more specifically a modern version of Double Indemnity, but no one involved had ever seen that film or any other noirs and so were just trying to base it all on vague plot summaries and the well known aspects of Noir (smoking, femme fatals, murder). It wouldn't surprise me if that was the case.

What does surprise me is how high this films rating is. I can only presume it's because of Fiorentino. She did a good job with what she was given and she was sexy. Not sexy enough to make you think for even the slightest moment you'd be suckered in by her. But certainly sexy enough to get a reaction in your pants. But then all the sex scenes in this film are very much modern, non-noir ideas. Which leads me to my penultimate thought - if the film wasn't down as being a modern noir and was just some 90's seduction flick would it be rated anywhere near as high? My final thought however is on the music. This film has a terrible cheap sounding soundtrack that doesn't really work with the film. Again it's like they wanted something that sounded a bit Noir, but didn't actually want to put much effort into it. That really sums up the whole film.