L'ombre de la séduction

This film has a good story that unravels at the end. Still, for a small independent film, it is intriguing, handling the mystery element well. Derien (Rebecca De Mornay) is a former vice cop now working as a private detective. Anthea (Dana Delaney) hires her to follow her husband Michael (Kiefer Sutherland) to see if he is cheating on her. After a few uneventful days of surveillance, Anthea is still not satisfied, so she adds a new dimension to the assignment. She proposes that Derien try to seduce her husband to test his fidelity. His response is predictable; the rest is not.

The story has some interesting and innovative twists, but becomes incongruous at the end. Without giving away the ending, all I can say is the director needed to do more research on forensics, because a suspect who is arrested for murder in the film would have been cleared 30 minutes after being detained in the real world.

The cast gives a solid performance. Kiefer Sutherland has played so many demented characters in his career that it is something of a shock seeing him in so normal a role. His character is no angel, but at least he isn't a sociopath. Sutherland gives a good performance but makes his character almost too nice. Rebecca De Mornay is back in shape, after a flaccid performance in `A Table for One'. This is actually the best I can remember her in quite some time. She is effective at rendering a character that is tough on the outside and tortured on the inside, with more than one weak spot in her psyche. Dana Delany is devious and duplicitous as the scheming wife.

Overall, this B movie could have been better, but it is far from bad. I rated it a 6/10. If you enjoy mysteries, it might be worth a try.

A female P.I., estimated to be "The Right Temptation", is hired by a women to try to seduce her wealthy husband thereby testing his loyalty...blaa, blaa. So begins another plasticized, predictable, trite formula Hollywood clone noirish mystery with characters too shallow, patter too glib, and story too pat. There's nothing here for an audience to sink their teeth into leaving one to just sit back and zone.

I was beginning to wonder about Kiefer Sutherland. Despite 17 years in the business and nearly 50 films, he's had few romantic moments on screen, particularly if you discount the coming-of-age stories he did early in his career. Thus, it was a real treat to see him in a sexy, mature romantic role in "The Right Temptation," and he was certainly up to the task.

Kiefer's talented enough that he can almost always find a way to shine, even when the material is weak, and both he and Dana Delany do so in this movie. Too bad the married couple they play (Michael and Anthea) has zero screen time together. Some well-scripted give-and-take between these two (steamy or not) could have added some interesting twists to the tale. Rebecca DeMornay (Darien), who's ostensibly the center of this piece, panted well enough during those love scenes with Michael, but either didn't have the skill to carry the lead or was hopelessly constrained by the script. Take your pick. In particular, the background story, which was supposed to give us insight into Darien's character and motivation, was simply flat. You kept wishing it would stop intruding at every turn.

The movie is only decent, but see it for the love scenes. It's always exhilarating to watch actors who can effectively convey sexual passion without having to reveal all their assets in the process.

Kiefer Sutherland has sunk to a new low. The plot was not new, very predictable, and the acting bad. The cinematography was jerky (Blair Witch) and there were scenes which didn't connect. This excuse for a movie should be ash canned. I found more suspense in picking my nose.

I have seen this movie a few times now. If you are looking for decent pulp film noir in the style of the old Hardboiled ones from 40' & 50's there is not too much on offer nowadays. This movie is a decent way to spend 90mins.

The love triangle has been explored many times in many films, so there is nothing fresh in that sense. However the performances are decent from all three leads in Particular the women. Kiefer Sutherland's performance is a little below par but still OK. The sexual tension is quite prevalent and simmers throughout, and other elements are handled OK.

The only problem is that the pace does tend to drag a bit and the movie did seem to feel longer than the 90 mins. However it is still worth the rental price. 6/10