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Femme Fatale (2002)
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Reviews Counted:133
Fresh:64
Rotten:69
Average Rating:5.4/10
Consensus: The thriller Femme Fatale is overheated, nonsensical, and silly.
Runtime: 1 hr 54 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Synopsis: Director Brian De Palma returns to familiar terrain with FEMME FATALE, a loopy, sexy thriller that plays like a "greatest hits" of the controversial director's tics, tricks, and obsessions. Here... Director Brian De Palma returns to familiar terrain with FEMME FATALE, a loopy, sexy thriller that plays like a "greatest hits" of the controversial director's tics, tricks, and obsessions. Here the story follows a beautiful seductress (Rebecca Romjin-Stamos) who betrays her cohorts during an elaborate diamond heist at the Cannes Film Festival, then disappears to America under the stolen identity of a dead French girl to whom she bears an uncanny resemblance. Seven years later she returns to Paris when her American husband (Peter Coyote) accepts a position as French ambassador. That's when Antonio Banderas, as a goofy photographer, enters the picture and becomes her lover and dupe in another elaborate scheme. Along the way there's steamy lesbianism, misogynistic violence, split-screens, double-crosses, time loops, VERTIGO-style stalking, a hot striptease, and plenty of dark comedy and sly homage to other films, all in the classic De Palma tradition. His fans should be thrilled, as this harkens back to the director's DRESSED TO KILL, BLOW OUT, and BODY DOUBLE days. Novices should prepare to throw credibility to the wind and just enjoy the stylistic bravado, the twists and turns, and the ravishing Stamos--who backs up her beauty with a captivating, enigmatic performance. [More]
Starring: Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Antonio Banderas, Peter Coyote, Gregg Henry
Starring: Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Antonio Banderas, Peter Coyote, Gregg Henry, Rie Rasmussen, Eriq Ebouaney
Director: Brian De Palma
Director: Brian De Palma
Screenwriter: Brian De Palma
Producer: Tarak Ben Ammar, Marina Gefter
Composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto
Studio: Warner Bros.
Reviews for Femme Fatale
Brian De Palma returns in full style with his best movie since Scarface.
The rest of the plot is impossible to explain without blowing whatever tension there is, although it's more comedy than suspense De Palma creates.
Nearly surreal, dabbling in French, this is no simple movie, and you'll be taking a risk if you choose to see it. I enjoyed the ride (bumps and all), creamy depth, and ultimate theme.
Though there are entertaining and audacious moments, the movie's wildly careening tone and an extremely flat lead performance do little to salvage this filmmaker's flailing reputation.
...Brian De Palma is utterly mad: cinema mad, set-piece mad, style mad. It's a beautiful madness.
This is pure, exciting moviemaking. You won't exactly know what's happening but you'll be blissfully exhausted.
Femme Fatale is not the director's best work ever, but it is as good as we've seen him be in much too long a time.
When [De Palma's] bad, he's really bad, and Femme Fatale ranks with the worst he has done.
A soap-opera quality twist in the last 20 minutes...almost puts the kibosh on what is otherwise a sumptuous work of B-movie imagination.
An erotic thriller that's neither too erotic nor very thrilling, either.
It's full of cheesy dialogue, but great trashy fun that finally returns De Palma to his pulpy thrillers of the early '80s.
Even accepting this in the right frame of mind can only provide it with so much leniency.
Feels like nothing quite so much as a middle-aged moviemaker's attempt to surround himself with beautiful, half-naked women.
Latest News for Femme Fatale
July 28, 2006:
Trailer Bulletin: Hartnett, Scarlett & Swank in De Palma's "Black Dahlia"
Master of suspense / veteran storyteller / admirer of Hitchcock / Brian De Palma has a new film on the horizon, his first since 2002's "Femme Fatale," and it looks to... More...
July 20, 2005:
Get Your First Beautifully Gruesome Peek at "Slither"
Chalk it up to a relatively slow news week, but the crew over at CHUD.com just got an exclusive peek at this crazy gory freaked-out monster from an upcoming horror flick called... More...
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