Fatale

Really shocked at the bad reviews... I really enjoyed it. Great directing, awesome sets, and the casting and performances were excellent. The story dragged on a little too slow, and either the pace should have been faster and/or some scenes trimmed down so the 102 runtime been around 85-90 mins. The score and cinematography were also on point. It's a well deserved 7/10 from me.

Derrick Tyler is a successful businessman who loves his wife, but during a trip to Las Vegas he cheats on her with a beautiful stranger. Upon returning home he becomes a victim of a violent home invasion which leads to an unexpected encounter with his one night stand from Las Vegas. Oh my, he wishes that he'd kept his pants on!

FATALE has a distinct vibe of the 90s about it and could have been a remake of UNLAWFUL ENTRY, a film with Kurt Russell and Ray Liotta.

I realise I enjoy recent work of Deon Taylor (the director): BLACK AND BLUE and THE INTRUDER both released in 2019 were down to basics thrillers, intense and fun to watch. FATALE is such a film, structured around Hilary Swank's character (detective Val Quinlan) it introduces a few surprises in the genre of so called "one night stand" thrillers, but then it evolves in a most predictable way.

The important thing about FATALE is that something is always happening, the action is propelled forward and the film ends in a flash. Whether you like the end result is a different story, but FATALE is the kind of guilty pleasure that you don't really feel guilty about. Hillary Swank's acting is also what makes the film very bearable!

As for the hidden meaning - white cop killing black people left right and centre is definitely a deliberate choice for the writers, making that cop a woman making this even more intense. Black people in the film are also depicted in a bad light, they are either gangsters, cheaters or murderers. Or plain stupid like the main character Derrick. So there we go.

But step away from political correctness and enjoy the movie for what it is - a cheesy femme fatale thriller straight from the 90s.

Successful sports agent Derrick Tyler (Michael Ealy) is getting married. He's brought to Vegas for a last day of bachelor freedom. He's disinterested until he meets Val (Hilary Swank). He lies and they have a fling. He leaves her to go back to his life in L. A. Someone breaks into his home and almost kills him. The police arrives and detective Val Quinlan turns out to be his Val from Vegas.

A cheating guy is hard to root for. The movie is trying to get the audience to empathize but I have no sympathy. Then the movie gets complicated. Val has personal drama. There are complications everywhere. The premise starts losing the thread. They are trying to do a Strangers on a Train plot but they are nowhere clever enough. Val's final move is unnecessary and ultimately makes no sense. This is a plot getting away from the writer's grasp. It has the lurid undertones but it becomes more gloss than grit. There could be something here if it could clean up some of the junk.

Is it a great story? No. Is the acting awesome? Not really. Then why 6 stars? Because I found the entire thing pretty entertaining. While parts of the story were pretty easy to figure out early on, there were some twists which I found interesting enough to make this a better movie than others thought it was.

The casting was kind of odd and Hilary Swank was not at her best. The story was interesting enough to finish the movie. It was not the most original and had some plot holes, but it was better than most of the reviews would let on.