Last Seduction

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.