The Last Seduction

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.

Superbe Linda Fiorentino en (sexy) femme fatale, féministe et vengeresse, maligne et manipulatrice, autoritaire et gracieuse !… les superlatifs manquent d’ailleurs et ne sont pas sans évoquer d’autres femmes fatales comme celles de… Femme Fatale (De Palma) ou Basic Instinct (Verhoeven)… Le film sait se montrer en outre d’une bien agréable ironie (souvent mordante) alors que dans le rôle du mari un peu cave et brutal, on tombe sur un étonnant Bill Pullman. Jusqu’à un peu moins de la moitié, le film déroule sans forcer, puis s’effondre assez abruptement, hélas… Le scénar commence en effet à se traînerà patauger et à partir en vrille dans des provocations putassières de bas étage, presque des tarantinades éventées et fortement faisandées… La fin et ses rebondissements tentent de rebondir avec plus ou moins d’à-propos mais le mal est fait : on est déjà gavé de toutes ces conneries répétées ! Enfin, la musique jazzy omniprésente a tendance à nous énerver sensiblement, car nous n’aimons point le jazz, pas du tout, même ! un thriller policier un peu trop décevant donc et c’est fort dommage, surtout pour Fiorentino, impériale ici.