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Call me a pig if you will, but the opening scenes to Femme Fatale were very good with two beautiful women making out and groping each other with partial nudity. This scene was not any sort of cinematic achievement, but damn it was erotic. Unfortunately, the rest of the film was not nearly as visually stimulating, if you know what I mean. Femme Fatale opens at the Cannes Film Festival in France where a gang of thieves is planning to steal a diamond studded gold bra-like outfit that barely covers the body of the model (supermodel Rie) wearing it (and often she shows off some nipple). Laure Ash (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Rollerball) is one of those thieves posing as a photographer at the event, but she is suppose to seduce the model in the bathroom and get her to take off the outfit where one partner, Black Tie (Eriq Ebouaney), will switch the real item with a knockoff. Then the third gang member, Racine (Edouard Montoute), will cut the power so all three can escape unnoticed. Everything is going fine until one of the jewelry’s guards goes into the bathroom where a shootout with Black Tie gets the guard and Black Tie shot. Black Tie survives and looks to kill the witness model, but Laure stops him, and both girls escape. Well, Racine wants his money and starts tracking her down, and he finds her in Paris and tries to kill her, but she survives and is mistaken for a girl named Lily who’s husband and daughter were recently killed, causing her to go AWOL from her family. This look-a-like also just happens to have a passport and a plane ticket to the United States, which Laure uses after watching the distraught Lily shoot herself in the head. On the plane ride to the US, Laure begins to pass herself off as Lily, and meets a nice, rich American diplomat named Bruce Hewitt Watts (Peter Coyote, A Walk to Remember). He falls for her (who wouldn’t?) and she falls for him, and then the film skips ahead eight years. Now Bruce has been appointed to the post of Ambassador to France, and he and Lily/Laure must move back to Paris, plus Black Tie just happens to get out of prison at the same time (what a coincidence). This comes at a price since Laure is still trying to hide from her old partners, who discover she is back in town after photographer Nicolas Bardo (Antonio Banderas, Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever) snaps a picture of her that makes it on the front page of the tabloids. That’s enough to get the general feel of the film as sex, lies, blackmail, more sex, and intrigue dominate the rest of the story. Lastly, look closely at the advertising kiosks in Paris (this is the foreshadowing). This Brian De Palma (Mission to Mars) written and directed film also has Thierry Fremont, Eva Darlan, Gregg Henry, and Salvatore Ingoglia in minor roles. Femme Fatale is a bit of an erotic thriller, but is light on both the thrilling and the erotic. Also, you don’t really feel anything towards the central character of Laure (outside of lust), so you do not care if she lives or dies, which takes away some of the suspense. In fact you do not feel anything for any of the characters since none of them are likeable (except maybe the real Lily). I am not sure what else this movie needs, but it needed something else to make it good. Although not a bad film, I can only give it five couches out of ten. Bon Voyage.
Last updated: Thursday, March 20, 2008 02:48:13 AM Click Here to get back into frames.
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