The Last Seduction is knee deep in the kind of seedy, neo-noir atmosphere you expect from these movies made in the 80s and 90s: House of Games, Basic Instinct, L.A. Confidential, Blood Simple, you know the type. The characters talk like they're either in the big city, or they're pretending to be. Their dialogue drips with suggestion and double meaning, not merely to turn the wheels of their devious schemes but also to key the audience into their motives. Linda Fiorentino is never less than what the plot needs her to be. Even as she is treated to her familiar dose of domestic abuse you can hear the churning and scheming in her mind - ladies and gentlemen, your femme fatale. And yet the performance is alluring all the same, despite dozens of previous stories telling us all how this one ends. Bridget Gregory, or Wendy Kroy, doesn't have the same blonde bombshell figure that you might expect after seeing Kathleen Turner in Body Heat, but in her mind that just keeps unwanted attention at bay. She doesn't need the pining of the small-town schmucks, she needs the guy in the middle, the straight-laced, overly-polite insurance worker who will go the extra mile for her even after having been rejected half a dozen times. Only after this initial test of his will (and his physical capabilities) does she give a little away. Peter Berg seems like a sap at first glance, the type of person to take an insult openly like a slap in the face and slip in a little self-depreciation for good measure. Here's a gorgeous woman offering one night stands upfront with a no commitment deal, but he mopes and mopes; he wants to talk a little in between all the sex, and eventually move up into the 'I love you' territory. Berg's Mike is so stilted and robotic next to Fiorentino throwing herself at him that it's almost as if he was an alien studying how to perform a human. But then the final twist is revealed, and suddenly everything makes sense. Mike has had his sense of masculinity shattered, and flees to his home town to re-piece it together. He can't afford to fall at the feet of whichever local hottie says hi to him at the bar; he's too guarded for that. Every minute of Mike's character is him over-correcting for his past mistakes, cautiously tip-toeing around the latest gal in town. But like any good noir, eventually he will fall in. And who wouldn't? Watch Fiorentino use her shoulder-length hair like a silky, black curtain, constantly swishing it back and forth as a power move. She doesn't just sit down, she sprawls and displays her entire body over furniture pieces, leaning way, way back, and men everywhere are transfixed. And her vocal delivery has just a tiny touch of huskiness to it - is it any wonder that Mike follows her around like a puppy?Bill Pullman as Clay, the wronged man, sticks out like the third wheel to this odd couple. He may put everything into that deadbeat grimace of his, but this is the same guy who played the president of the United States (and by extension, the planet Earth). Try as he might, he can't seem to fully summon all his loathing for his ex-wife, and so their phone calls are part menace, and full on seduction. She hasn't just hit him back, she's kicked him square in the groin and the wallet, and yet here he is trying to crawl back anyway. You might argue that there is no depth to this femme fatale, and you'd be right. She wants money and sex, and is willing to forgo the latter for the former. The men she stalks are the same. It's either one or the other, and even poor Mike has that thinly veiled desperation about him when he cracks. In return, he attempts to desperately re-assert his masculinity and falls right into her trap. Forget the convenience of the phone call trace now being swift; what matters is how he has played right into her hands, and revealed his meekness to be nothing but a temporary facade. Yet the great noirs crafted entire lives in mere glances and touches, made longing and memory a torturous existence. Dahl uses his entire runtime as foreplay, and although at the end I was thrilled, the twist didn't tell me anything I didn't already know about dames like Bridget. In Out of the Past, Robert Mitchum has to fend off advances from a past lover, who threatens to pull him back into a world he once abandoned. At the end of the movie, we don't agree with his choice, but we understand why he chooses it - he never really left in the first place. True, you don't expect complex character introspection from these types of trashy neo-noirs, but at least throw in something fresh. The genre hit a snag in this period, by thinking that urban ugliness was the only setting that these archetypes belonged to. So the photography is all shadows and murkiness, with some neon signage here and there. But Fiorentino could bring a man to his knees in open daylight.

This is one twisted chick in one twisted film. The thing that obviously attracts us to the female character is her beauty, and brains. No one could be this evil and still have men chasing her without "something." And the "something" is that she's sexy as can be a real knock-out. Linda Fiorentino is one of Hollywood's overlooked gems. Not only is she incredibly beautiful, but she is also a gifted actress. She'd made a few forgettable films prior to this, but this is the film that sent her star rising up-word. She delivered what had to be the hands down best performance of the year, in what had to be the best film of the year. Yet because it was first released to cable she was unable to be nominated for an Academy Award (Best Actress).There may be plot holes in "The Last Seduction," but I didn't notice them. And when Fiorentino's character (Bridget) burns a piece of evidence at the film's end, it certainly makes a case that the writers were not slack with the details. The other point that made me hesitate was the full screen treatment, and claims of a poor quality film transfer. I'm a widescreen viewer, but please do not let this full screen treatment discourage you. As for the quality of the film, it's a bit grainy, but I felt that actually gave the movie more of a gritty "film noir" look. After watching, I felt the tragedy as well. All that intelligence, calculation, expense of energy....for what? All for a tragic goal, although a tragic goal is not the same as a tragic ending. Poet W. S. Merwin nailed it with: "if we only knew, if we only knew what we needed, the stars would look to us to guide them." Overall rating: 9 out of 10.

This movie was fun to watch, but I couldn't help wondering what happens to Bridget after the credits started to roll, and feeling strangely frightened for her. Here's what I (sadly) imagined happens after the ending: ****SPOILER ALERT*****PLEASE DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU LIKED THE ENDING!!!After Bridget cruises off in the stretch limousine, we jump ahead to two months later. Bridget starts to feel ill: fever and cold sweats that she can't seem to shake. She goes to the doctor, and he/she runs some tests. She finds out that she is HIV positive. She is alarmed. Shocked. Unbelieving. The doctor asks her if she has had unprotected sex in the past. She thinks back, at first remembering nothing. Then she remembers the "rape" by Mike the night she murdered her husband. She remembers the secret that Mike was briefly married to Trish, a trans woman/transvestite. Despair rises in her eyes as their conversation that first night she met Mike replays in her mind:Bridget: "How many lovers?" Mike: "Err, thirteen."(Shaking his head) "Twe...twelve." Bridget: "Any prostitutes?" Mike: "No" Bridget: "Any men?" Mike: (Vehemently) "NO!" (Turning to look her in the eye) "No Ma'am!"In anger, Bridget storms out of the doctor's office. She is resolute that she will not die alone. We see her in a quick montage having (we presume unprotected) sex with twenty men, one after another, and it is only at this moment that we see Bridget's humanity. Jump cut to some time later (months? weeks?). Bridget is relaxing on her chaise lounge in her sumptuously decorated Central Park West apartment. All calm has been restored. She looks like her usual prim, attractive self. The small smile playing across her face is all that reminds us of the secret that only she and the audience knows. Fade to black.Roll credits

I remember hearing about this film before and trying it, but I got bored within about ten minutes, thank goodness it was listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die otherwise I wouldn't have tried it again and watched it all the way through, from director John Dahl (Red Rock West). Basically Bridget Gregory (Men in Black's BAFTA nominated Linda Fiorentino) is a sociopathic femme fatale who has stolen $700,000 from her husband Clay (Bill Pullman) who does drug dealing, and she heads for Chicago to start a new life. She finds the small town of Beston, Buffalo, and she meets Mike Swale (Peter Berg) who has recently married and divorced, she is just after sex and he is wanting to get away from things, and he is interested in finding out more about her. It is after Bridget changes her name to "Wendy Kroy" (New York backwards) and gets a job in the same insurance company Mike works for that they grow closer together, and Clay meanwhile has hired private detective Harlan (Bill Nunn) to help find her and the money. As they get to know each other, Mike tells Bridget how to tell if a person is having an affair, based on credit reports, and she plots a devious plan of fake murder, even pretending to go to Florida, but actually to see Mike's ex wife Trish (Serena). She shows him the money she stole and claims that she got it from a murdered victim, one who had an affair, and she says he must murder someone to make things even between them so they can live together, and prove he loves her. He at first refuses, but then he sees a fake letter, actually written by Bridget, saying that Trish is moving to Beston, and he agrees to murder the "tax lawyer" she tells him about, when in fact it is Clay. Harlan has failed to follow her when she visits the house on a few occasions, but Clay, tied up, manages to make Mike see what is going on with the woman he loves, proving his story their marriage photographs, and they plan to double cross her like she has to them. But Bridget kills Clay herself, and he tries to enrage Mike into raping her, telling him that she knows Trish is actually transsexual, and he does rape her, but he does not realise she phoned the police who hear the crime, so he goes to jail while Bridget gets away with the money. Also starring Pleasantville's J.T. Walsh as Frank Griffith, Herb Mitchell as Bob Trotter, Brien Varady as Chris, Dean Norris as Shep, Donna Wilson as Stacy and Mik Scriba as Ray. Pullman gives a good supporting performance as the husband who wants to catch his manipulative wife, Berg is also great as the man who is in a relationship that may never be real, and Nunn has some good small moments as the man helping Pullman catch the wife, but the film of course belongs to Fiorentino who is perfect as the man-eating bitch that you both love and hate at the same time. I will admit some of the story got complicated in moments, with the manipulation stuff, but the almost not real love story element is interesting, the search for the wife and money stuff is cool, and the woman doing everything for herself and the money is sizzling, it is a thriller that should be seen. Very good!