Femme Fatale

A director of this caliber should have done better. Nice idea but the devices used in this film were far too obvious. One saving grace of the film is that the female lead is truely smoking hot and does a nice job of acting the role, but the mechanics of putting the movie together felt too much like a film school project (clearly an "A" but still a project). Overall, worthwhile but a little disappointing given the potential here.

FEMME FATALE (2002) * Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Antonio Banderas, Peter Coyote, Ariq Ebouaney, Edouard Montoute, Rie Rasmussen, Thierry Fremont, Gregg Henry. Filmmaker Brian DePalma once again goes to the Hitchcockian well one time too often in this dreadfully listless and incredibly pedestrian ‘thriller' about a bad French girl (Romijn-Stamos doing a killer Sharon Stone cum Grace Kelly turn) whose identity as a criminal threatens to be usurped when she attempts a change in life by marrying a wealthy American diplomat and photographer Banderas (in one of his worst displays of acting) as the patsy she becomes embroiled with involving murder, blackmail and mistaken identity. Too much of a thinly veiled attempt by DePalma to breathe fresh life into a long-gone corpse: the erotic mystery via travelogue despite his pulling out all the stops (vertigo inducing cinematography, split-screens, etc.) that he has been notorious for. Boring and tedious in its theatricality; a real shame from a master auteur.

As I've always supported Brain's work, I guess I'm not very objective in my opinion. This film is a kind of "best of" of this brilliant director. The fans or the people who loves a certain kind of formal achievement can be hooked by this movie. But the others... The screenplay is the real wickness of this movie: too many non-senses can "hurt" most of the audiance (at the end, I've also heard some laughts!). Even for me, I've sometimes had hard-time because the story seems to have no logical ("why did she do this?" "and him, why is he there?", etc...) But when you see the Key of the movie, I mean the real theme, you can accept most of the things you've seen. Or not... Forget the screenplay and watch! That's the only way to appreciate this movie.

Since De Palma directed the debacle that was Mission Impossible, it seemed like a genius director has lost it all but this latest movie by the "new Hitchcock" is perhaps one of his strongest since "Carlito's Way" and the masterpiece "Body Double". The story itself is quite simple : during the filmfestival of Cannes is a bunch of diamonds stolen but then the fun begins...you really have to be attentive during the whole movie as every minute De Palma puts you on a wrong foot just like we're used to by the master of the black thrillers... An absolute must!!!!

Brian De Palma's 'Femme Fatale' is pure movie-making. In fact, it is done so well you almost forget it is all close to nonsense. But who cares, 'Femme Fatale' is an exercise in style drenched in twists and turns. Instead of cheating De Palma gives us a lot of little hints, easily missed the first time you see it. Explaining the story could ruin a lot and is probably useless anyway.

I can tell the film opens with a heist, probably one of the most erotic ones out there. Laure Ash (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) is the one who goes away with a very expensive artifact betraying a whole lot of people. This event is what drives her the rest of the movie, but in what way I can not reveal. I can say that we move forward to seven years later and that Laure has changed her identity, more by mistake than on purpose. Another important thing I can tell you is that we meet a photographer named Nicolas Bardo (Antonio Banderas). He takes a picture of Laure while she is still Laure and he is the one who takes a picture of her seven years later, a photo that could spoil everything for her.

I should stop talking about the story. You have to see it for yourself, collecting clues and try to make something out of it. I love a movie like this. 'Memento', 'Mulholland Dr.' and 'Donnie Darko' are other examples. Maybe you can figure them out, if that is the filmmakers intention, maybe you can not. But it is not so much the conclusion I enjoy, it is the ride that brings us there. De Palma does it in a terrific way with a lot of love for the movies.