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All-Reviews.com Movie/Video Review
Femme Fatale
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  out of 4
| *Also starring: | Rie Rasmussen, Peter Coyote, Edouard Montoute, Eriq Ebouaney, Thierry Fremont |
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Review by Susan Granger
2½ stars out of 4
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Sexy, statuesque Rebecca Romijn-Stamos goes the voyeuristic Sharon
Stone "Basic Instinct" route in Brian De Palma's bizarre new thriller, playing
Laura Ash, a bold, bisexual con woman. The intricate story begins with the theft
of a $10 million solid-gold, diamond-encrusted serpent, wound around the breasts
of a nearly-nude model (Rie Rasmussen), at the Cannes Film Festival. It's an
edgy heist that goes awry, propelling Laura to flee to Paris where she's
mistaken for a suicidal young mother named Lily whom she closely resembles.
Eager for the convenient - if coincidental - new identity, she boards a flight
to America, where she's seated next to a successful businessman (Peter Coyote)
who falls in love with her. But, several years later, her idyllic anonymity is
challenged when her husband is appointed U.S. ambassador to France. She's
understandably camera-shy and elusive, but her image is captured by an
enterprising tabloid photographer (Antonio Banderas) and recognized by her
furious former cohorts-in-crime (Eriq Ebouaney, Edouard Montoute) who pursue
her, vowing revenge. That's the basic plot but writer-director Brian De Palma
delves into far-fetched, convoluted fantasy/reality twists reminiscent of
"Mulholland Drive" and "Vanilla Sky," highlighted by Thierry Arbogast's clever
camerawork and Ryuichi Sakamoto's score with Ravel's "Bolero." Rebecca
Romijn-Stamos radiates adventurous, assertive American (she's supposed to be
French) and her performance is strictly two-dimensional as is Antonio
Banderas's. As a result, the audience never feels empathy for either. On the
Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Femme Fatale" is an intriguing, structurally
unpredictable, visually stylish 6, tempting you to see it twice in order to spot
the clues you missed the first time.
Copyright © 2002 Susan Granger
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