Rent The Last Seduction (1994)

Last Seduction - The Last Seduction review by CP Customer

Brilliant modern film noir

She Came, She Scammed, She Vanished - The Last Seduction review by griggs

Most femme fatales play the game. This one flips the board, pockets the pieces, and sells the table. The Last Seduction is a noir that knows the rules and couldn’t care less about following them. Linda Florentino owns every frame—sharp-tongued, dead eyed, and utterly magnetic. She doesn’t seduce as much as dare you to think you’re in control.

The plot’s a twisty small-town caper involving stolen cast, bad decisions, and men who really should know better. It’s pulpy but smart, and John Dahl directs with a knowing smirk—stylish without overreaching.

What makes it sing, though, is the gender reversal. Then men here are the dupes, the dreamers, the ones left blinking in the rear-view mirror. Firorentino’s Bridget isn’t searching for love or redemption—just a way out, preferably with a fat envelope of cash and no loose ends.

It’s dark, dry and deliciously cynical. If noir’s about power and consequence this one’s proof that bad behaviour isn’t just for the boys.

Linda Fiorentino is the femme fatale in this tense erotic thriller - The Last Seduction review by Philip in Paradiso

Bridget Gregory (Linda Fiorentino) works as a telemarketing manager in a company based in New York City. Clay, her husband, is a dodgy doctor who is in debt to a loan shark. He decides to sell pharmaceutical cocaine to drug dealers, making $700,000 in the process. Once home, Clay hits Bridget in the face after a brief argument, when she insults him. Bridget runs away from their apartment with the money, heading for Chicago. The film develops from that point onwards.

Bridget is an attractive, sexy and bold young woman, who is predatory and cynical. She is the dangerous femme fatale who manipulates gullible, naive, unintelligent and gormless men with ease, using her intelligence and her sex appeal to devastating effect. The story develops in unexpected ways, until its spectacular ending. Overall, it is a good film. However, it is not a masterpiece of the genre, in my view. If you want a masterpiece along such lines, watch "Body Heat" with William Hurt and the sultry, mysterious Kathleen Turner.

There are several problems with "The Last Seduction". First of all, Linda Fiorentino lacks a certain aura or mystery, in my opinion, to be the ultimate femme fatale: it simply isn't her style, at any rate in this movie. She is hard-nosed, cynical and efficient - almost too much. Second, the men in the film are caricatures: they truly are dumb and weak, all of them, to the point where they are not credible. The lead male actors are not that good, in my view: whether it is intentional or not, they are totally dominated by the character played by Linda Fiorentino. The problem is that she finds it too easy to trick them into doing what she wants: it drains the film of tension, in a way. So, a good film but, if you want the real McCoy, watch "Body Heat", which is a masterpiece let down by its dull title.