Séduction Fatale

Struggling writer Samson Young (Billy Bob Thornton), sleazy darts player Keith Talent (Jim Sturgess), and well dressed man Guy Clinch (Theo James) are in a dive bar when Nicola Six (Amber Heard) walks in dressed in sexy mourning. The clairvoyant femme fatale can see the deaths of people. In that moment, she realizes that she has seen her eventual murderer. She lives above Samson and is a character in the story he's writing.

It's a disjointed mess. I like a few of the surreal touches but dislike a whole lot more other ones. The Enola Gay makes Guy look stupid or is the writing stupid? Or is the writer's expectations of the audience is too low? At least, the story could be about Bockscar and Fat Man. It just makes the movie stupid overall. Next, Samson Young is an unreliable narrator. He's a sleepy unreliable creator. It makes everything in the movie unreliable. In addition, Amber Heard is nothing but sex. She's an empty character. There is no motivation. She is a figment of Samson's imagination. She is a surreal fake creation of the male libido. She's a sex robot bending to each male's fantasy. Finally, there is Jim Sturgess contorting his face unnaturally beyond camp. It's completely ridiculous. With the darts playing, it reminds me of The Big Lebowski but in a bad way. There is no loveable character. There is no fun. There is no enjoyable quirkiness. This is a mess waiting for the reveal which I don't care about with characters that are not compelling.

I'm not sure if Jim Sturgess was encouraged to play the insanely over the top cockney geezer, or it's simply how he did it

I give it three stars, simply because the opening was brilliant, two minutes of stylish, elegant, engaging cinematography, those sequences were the best part of the film. Some scenes looked nice. However...

As soon as Keith arrives, the film becomes unwatchable. The plot vanishes, the story telling is nothing short of a fiasco, it really does become a self absorbed mess, I applaud you if you see it all the way through.

Theo James by contrast is very good, he's a fine actor, but the damage had been done beyond belief by the time he arrives.

Didn't enjoy it, 3/10.

Stylish with some surreal touches, but lost all the complexities of the book. It falls into the: 'so-bad-it's-entertaining' category. A vacuous, one-dimensional performance from Amber Heard adds nothing to an incoherent plot. Jim Sturgess epically over-acts to hilarious levels! What was the director thinking? No wonder Johnny Depp wanted to remain un-credited

Apparently the lead actress was a looker ten years ago and this made up for a complete absence of acting talent. she is not a looker unless one means her own blank stare, and she just destroys the film with unbelievably bad acting.

FYI for the one person who posted four reviews under different names saying "get the directors cut" -- all of us giving this one or two stars did see the directors cut. It IS the directors cut streaming. It is just as bad only more nonsense. More garbage does not make the garbage better.

This film tells the story of a writer who gets inspired by her neighbour of his flat swap.

Seriously, this film is so sexually charged that it gets me uncomfortable. It basically is the vehicle to objectify Amber Heard, thereby fulfilling someone's perverted sexual fantasy. It tries a bit of noir, but it does not succeed. Instead, it is less than engaging and does not offer suspense or mystery as intended.