A slick, wild sex romp that's best enjoyed the less sense one tries to make of it while it's unfolding.
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
A treat for fans who like their sex & violence delivered with a lot of imagination and a wicked sense of humour.
You may loathe [De Palma's] sexual excesses and violent urges, but his images are visual catnip.
Brian De Palma's latest is a big, glossy smash -- and so entertaining, you almost forget it's all nonsense.
Romijn-Stamos' performances in in Sports Illustrated swimsuit videos were more compelling.
Only about as sexy and dangerous as an actress in a role that reminds at every turn of Elizabeth Berkley's flopping dolphin-gasm.
If I could have looked into my future and saw how bad this movie was, I would go back and choose to skip it. Fortunately, you still have that option.
...Brian De Palma is utterly mad: cinema mad, set-piece mad, style mad. It's a beautiful madness.
I don't know if this is a Lynch satire or just a piss-poor imitation, but it's spectacularly funny either way.
Sustains its dreamlike glide through a succession of cheesy coincidences and voluptuous cheap effects, not the least of which is Rebecca Romijn-Stamos.
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.
Probably an example of style over substance, but that's okay when something is this pleasing to the eye.
He superimposes her face over that of the film's many women, at once reinforcing the nature of the character's split self and the overall dreamlike momentum of the narrative.
About a woman who takes on a new identity, this is more like Mulholland Drivel than like anything David Lynch could have dreamed up.
Such a bad, self-satisfied film that you can't help but marvel, and laugh, at it.
De Palma, who wrote the screenplay, doesn't seem to care here about basics like non-cardboard characters, credible plotting or giggle-free dialogue.
...chock full of the various camera tricks that made [De Palma] famous more than two decades ago, from slow-motion sequences to uninterrupted long takes.
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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