So what was De Palma thinking...did the moviemaking mastermind behind such intriguing fare like Blow Out, Scareface, and the super-charged Mission: Impossible drink too much cough syrup to the point where it left him uncharacteristically disoriented?
Femme Fatale (2002)
Tomatometer
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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
Como obra de arte, este projeto falha grosseiramente (e vai despertar a revolta de muitos espectadores). Já como exercício cinematográfico, merece um pouco mais de atenção.
What's so fun about this silly, outrageous, ingenious thriller is the director's talent. Watching a Brian DePalma movie is like watching an Alfred Hitchcock movie after drinking twelve beers.
A lovely, unapologetic rendering of all the stuff that makes De Palma films tick -- and great stylish fun to boot.
But in a disastrous third act, “Femme Fatale’s” more enjoyable moments are eviscerated by the film’s final surprise. One monstrous twist too many and De Palma seems to apologize for his earlier, edgier decisions.
Not-so-nifty camera tricks did little to mask a downright lame script and the plot twists were crushingly heavy handed and unoriginal.
There's no humour, no suspense, little drama, not much sex appeal and hardly any intrigue.
Even accepting this in the right frame of mind can only provide it with so much leniency.
A movie as glossily silly -- and guiltily pleasurable -- as a waiting-room fashion magazine.
I found myself capitulating to its inspired formalist madness -- something I've resisted in [De Palma's] films for the past 30-odd years.
Perhaps more than any film he's made up to this point, [it] is DePalma's most humanistic defense of his body of work, but only a director with his unique obsessions and talents could make a statement of humanism that’s so provocative, sexy, and exciting.
This is SO De Palma. If you love him, you'll like it. If you don't...well, skip to another review.
Fatale has some moments of brilliance. For some, these flashes of mastery will be enough.
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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