Séduction fatale

Bill Bennett is one of those directors, like Stanley Kubrick, who insists on trying out different genres just to see if he can do it; hence his Australian road movie `Kiss or Kill', his period anthropological drama `In a Savage Land' (set in the Trobriand Islands), his broad ocker comedy `The Nugget' and this one, an example of film noir set in New Orleans (Melbourne would be a bit more of a challenge). He also apparently saved on the script by getting the actors to improvise, a risk of course that Kubrick never took. His actors are fortunately professional and experienced, if not big names, (Burt Reynolds is the most prominent) and rise to the occasion, more or less, though some of the sex scenes required unusual agility to avoid injury.

Charlie Le Blanc, a successful builder (Burt Reynolds), has been told he hasn't long to live (something nasty in his brain), and has become obsessed with the idea that his beautiful ex-model wife Lilly (Saffron Burrows), 30 years younger, may not be faithful to him and therefore not be worthy of the fortune she will inherit. So he engages Jimmy (Peter Facinelli), one of his carpenters (who also happens to be working his way through law school) to test her out for a $50,000 fee. Jimmy, with an indeterminate accent but helped by Tom Cruise-ish good looks, has little trouble cracking the case, so to speak, but things start to go wrong after Jimmy tells his gay friend Ted (Eric Mabius) about the deal. Naturally, Charlie has engaged a private eye to videotape everything and we soon have lots of incriminating evidence on tape – the American obsession with recording everything strikes again. The police never had it so easy.

Although the plot's twists and turns lose the viewer occasionally, it's a reasonably absorbing thriller with the appropriately noir atmosphere. Filming in N'orlands as the locals call it, makes this easy of course, though as an ex-resident I think the place's sleaziness is much over-emphasised. Despite the majority black population I think there is only one black speaking part in the movie, another handsome building worker approached to do Charlie's job who is dismissed as being a bit uppity – another great Southern cliche. I would recommend avoiding the famous above-ground cemeteries at night, though. It's not the Vampires you have to worry about, just local hoodlums, who are invariably armed. La Fayette number one is a particularly bad spot and sure enough our characters march right into it.

Burt Reynolds is fine as Charlie, whose ruthlessness is not quite offset by his charm (Burt, being born in Georgia, has no trouble with the southern accent.) Saffron Burrows – stick insect as sexpot – is mostly convincing and Peter Facinelli may lack Tom Cruise's intensity, but he handles his role OK. The acting honours I think go to Mike Starr who plays a supporting character, Charlie's sidekick, the mountainous Dot Collins, a fine example of a family man who will do terrible things in the name of loyalty – John Goodman as Oddjob.

New Orleans businessman Burt Reynolds takes it into his head to test wife Saffron Burrows' fidelity. He gives day laborer Peter Facinelli $10,000 to try to seduce her, and promises another $40,000 if he succeeds. At first she's not interested. However, when Reynolds' secretary tells her about the matter, she sleeps with Facinelli. This sets off a chain of betrayal and murder.

There are a couple of plot hole and a couple of very convenient coincidences in this movie, but it was effective, mostly because the performers are good enough to mask their conflicted emotions throughout. Reynolds is good, although he can't do a New Orleans or Cajun, or whatever he's supposed to be accent, and Miss Burrows is a very skinny and attractive young woman in a couple of soft-core porn scenes. With Mike Starr, Carol Sutton, and Eric Mabius.

I found the film nailed me from the beginning, this film has nearly everything a decent film has to have , good-great acting, an original concept, a good trace of the pilot, many turns and twists...

See this film without high expectations, its not a classic , but a film that will keep you on your seat while watching it, thats for sure.

Burt Reynolds looked spooky with his new facelift, but no one can take away his first-rate timing in line delivery, and his character in this semi-clever thriller from writer/director Bill Bennett is aptly creepy and unpredictable. The plot is quite intriguing: a rich old man hires a handsome young carpenter to test the fidelity of his beautiful young wife. There's money, power, and sex on the table, and the performers revel in Bennett's seething New Orleans atmosphere. Burt's surprisingly effective voiceover at the start of the film gives us a backdrop of sweaty summers and secretive swamps, and Bennett's persuasive presentation makes most of the film's more or less preposterous suggestions seem believable, even downright irresistible.

If I had put two and two together that this is the same director, Bill Bennett, that had done "The Nugget", which I thought was an abominable supposed comedy, I probably never would have watched "Tempted". Unfortunately I would have missed a very intriguing neo-noir, so I'm not ashamed to give credit where credits due. Burt Reynolds hires a carpenter, Peter Facinelli, who works for him, to severely test his beautiful wife's fidelity. The script has many twists and turns, a few of which seem to slightly stretch credibility, but overall this is a fine, entertaining film. The erotic moments work, and the story fills the 91 minute running time nicely. Recommended. - MERK