Femme Fatale

Rating:
Summary: Fast Moving, but Story Needs Improvement
Review: Brian De Palma is at home in the world of the fast moving thriller, and "Femme Fatale" surely encompasses this genre. Not only is the pacing swift, but the photography is superb, with an accent on the beauty of France. Those who love Paris will thrill to the city's beauty once more as accented by one key shot on the bridge above the Seine River overlooking the bright lights of the Eiffel Tower.

The film opens at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, where a ruthless criminal called Black Tie, played by Eriq Ebouaney, seeks to pull off a $10 million jewelry heist by having beautiful blonde Rebecca Romijn-Stamos seduce gorgeous international star Rie Rasmussen, who has the jewelry adorn her shapely body. The seduction scene involving two beautiful, slimly shapely women, is given proper close-up treatment by the camera's riveting eye.

Stamos ultimately decides to flee the scene with Rasmussen, crossing the ruthless Black Tie. The chase is on from there and the film switches gears as Rasmussen apparently commits suicide and Stamos takes the plane ticket she had bought from Paris to the United States. On the plane Stamos meets Peter Coyote, who we later learn is American Ambassador to France and the world's richest man.

The film enters another phase when, after returning to Paris with Coyote as his wife, Stamos becomes enamored with down at the heels local photographer Antonio Banderas and hatches a plot to shake down Coyote for $10 million on the assumption she has been kidnapped and her life is in danger.

At that point the film moves from what was a dream sequence to an apparent esp juncture where the dream of Stamos ultimately becomes reality, at least up to a point.

The plotting needed more imagination, with the meeting between Stamos and Coyote being just too pat, along with his super wealth. One wonders also about the lack of security in view of the $10 million in diamonds adorning Rasmussen at Cannes.

Rating:
Summary: more like Femme Fatality
Review: maybe my expectations were too high but this movie just didn't get my attention very much the movie is slow and deary throughout as well as confusing, one word to describe it is well uninteresting.

Rating:
Summary: Sexy, Smart & Provacative
Review: This movie is a lot better than most reviewers thought. Besides
being stylish, sexy and beautiful to look at, it's far more intelligent than your usual Hollywood fare. It operates on more than one level at a time, and, because it gives you something to think about that is not issue-oriented, is really rather fascinating.
To discuss the plot is to give things away, so I will tell you rather what is so interesting about this picture.
If "Dressed to Kill" was DiPalma's tribute to Hitchcock, "Femme Fatale" is his tribute to Goddard and the rest of the French New
Wave directors of the 60's. The theme of this movie is actually a line from Edgar Allen Poe: "All that we see or seem / is but a dream within a dream." The film is dream-like in its pacing,
its juxtapositions and its imagery. It is also about dreams...
dreams as ambitions, dreams as aspirations and dreams in the Freudian/Jungian sense of symbolic communication between the
unconscious and the conscious mind. Music lovers will notice immediately that the music which accompanies the wonderfully
langourous and seductive opening scene is Ravel's "Bolero" with half the orchestration missing. Later in the film, Bartok's
"Concerto for Orchestra" gets the same treatment. That's a tipoff that there's something amiss with what you're seeing and following as a storyline. If the surprise ending strikes you as emotionally cheap and unfulfilling, well, so are most dreams.
Like the Paris locales in this film, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos is wonderful to look at... you can't take your eyes off her. She
is also given a part to play with real complexity, if not a lot
of emotional depth, and acquits herself very well indeed. This part should convince anyone who sees it that she is an actress
of some promise and deserves better and more varied roles. Likewise, Antonio Banderas always finds just the right note in playing the wiseguy papparazzi who soon finds himself in 'way over his head.
This may not be a great film, but it is an extraordinarily GOOD one!

Rating:
Summary: An Effective, if Sometimes Overwrought, Film Noir
Review: Brian DePalma is terribly underrated as a filmmaker--one might even legitimately use the term "auteur"--even if so many of his films seem derivative in style and content. Here, he mines a lot of Paul Verhoeven's work ("Basic Instinct," as well as Verhoeven's earlier European thrillers) and gives the production a "haute couture," late 1960s feel that is both breezy and dangerous. There's the requisite icy blonde (Rebecca-Romijn-Stamos, looking like the statuesque softball captain from high school who suddenly discovers expensive makeup) and a black-clad Antonio Banderas, playing the gigolo innocent pulled into the web of intrigue. The plot is fairly standard noir, though DePalma throws in a "what if" last act that is sure to disorient viewers unfamiliar with the director's penchant for split screens and narrative somersaults. The best thing about "Femme Fatale" is that despite showing a fair amount of sex, DePalma is more interested in exploring power as the defining force in our biology. Romijn-Stamos simply wields her body like a blunt instrument; for her, sex is power. By the second half, though, the convolutions of plot and familiar distractions of Romijn-Stamos in some state of undress grow repetitious. Nonetheless, the aesthetics of DePalma's artistic vision--from the confident camera angles to the perversion of Ravel's "Bolero" to the production's fondness for sea foam green--are worth giving this DVD a look. Given DePalma's sensibilities, I wouldn't mind seeing him some day breathe life back into the Bond films.

Rating:
Summary: Passafist Reviews Femme Fatale
Review: For the record I am not a fan of Brian De Palma (Raising Caine), I loathed his last few films. So I walked into FEMME FATALE with low expectations, and was pleasantly surprised. This is one awesome ride. The film has everything a great crime movie needs. A cool heist, a double cross, secret lives, doppelgangers, and a hopeless patsy. Rebecca Romijn-Stamos (X-Men) plays Laure Ash, a beautiful and yet mysterious woman; she is paid to steal diamonds off of women at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. All goes well until she double crosses the bad guys, French actors Eriq Ebouaney, and Edouard Montoute, and goes off into hiding. I'll leave the plot at that because it's one of that plot that the less you know the more fun the movie is. De Palma has guts, that is the foundation the film is built on. Sure the story is a little trashy. The sex scenes are pretty gratuitous, and until close to the end the film has this kind of sensibility. It's only after the rug has been pulled out from under us that you start to question your reaction to the film.

The movie has one of those endings that will either work for you or ruin the whole experience for you. It's why Roger Ebert can give the film **** and other critics can loathe it. That's part of its charm actually. I am not about to side with Ebert but I wouldn't give if an F either. The film is too much fun to be unwatchable.

Stamos is really good. Maybe her acting isn't the best, but she's one of those women the camera really loves. She also knows how to pick her projects so she'll only get better. I liked the vulnerability her tough as nails character shows. There are these great moments where she's hiding behind a curtain watching a woman try to kill herself. Wow! She also does a good job of turning her character around on a dime. She can go from sweet to tearing your balls off in seconds, it really cool.

Antonio Bandaras's is great. He plays an out-of-work Paparazzi photographer named Nicholas Bardo. It's really nice to see an actor like him play against type. He plays the trusting patsy who you feel bad for as the film closes. He's also got the greatest agent in the world. I quote most trailers `In a world where there's more than one really sexy actress. One man was lucky enough to get action from all of them on screen.'

FEMME FATALE is fun. It won't change the cinematic landscape but it's a wild ride without special effects. Give the film a try.

Why not get double-crossed by....FEMME FATALE.

Rating:
Summary: Another De Palma gem!
Review: First and foremost, I have to admit to myself that I am a Brian De Palma fan. I don't like all his stuff (Scarface, Mission Impossible, to name a few) but, if you want gratuitous eye candy, this film has it all. A lot of people that I have spoken to complained about Femme Fatale's ludicrous plot twists. Of course it's ludicrous! The excessive plot falls right in line with the excessive camera work and excessive editing. I can't remember the last time I had so much fun watching a movie. There will be a lot of Hitchcock comparisons, but what director of thriller films, isn't influenced by him these days?

Here's the skinny. The film stars Rebecca Romijn as the Femme Fatale, and Antonio Banderas stars as one of her victim/lover/blackmailer. Eriq Ebouaney is impressive as an ex-con seeking revenge. He is constantly surprising me with his incredible range. Peter Coyote plays another dull and wooden character (he really sucks.) Hey Pete! I know you have to make a living, but please give it a rest. The good thing is that he's only on the screen for about 10 minutes.

I would have given the movie 4 stars, but I had to deduct one for Sakamoto's blatant rip-off of Ravel's Bolero for the film score.

Rating:
Summary: Stylish But Hollow Thriller
Review: Rebecca Romijn-Stamos stars as the ultimate femme fatale and all-around bad girl in this stylish but narratively problematic thriller written and directed by Brian dePalma. In the opening minutes of the film, we see Laure (Romijn-Stamos) pull off a complex jewel heist and double-cross her accomplices in the South of France. In a surprising twist of fate, she is able to assume the identity of Lily, a woman who has recently died, and flee to the United States before her disgruntled cohorts catch up with her. She returns to France seven years later, married to a prominent American (Peter Coyote) and with a plan to subvert her past and her husband and make off with a lot of cash.

Femme Fatale is more about style than substance. The characters are seductive. Each scene is packed with visual interest. The plot is serpentine and mysterious. It could have been an entertaining over-the-top story of treachery and clever schemes among shady characters. But it seems more like an exercise in placing those elements on screen than like a cohesive film. I could enjoy most of the film for its cleverness and good looks despite all of its self-conscious cinematic gimmicks. But the story loses all credibility in the third act, which makes for a very unsatisfying, if thought-provoking, ending. Femme Fatale has many of the elements of a good film without actually being one. I give it three stars for being clever and visually sumptuous, and for Rebecca Romijn-Stamos' gutsy performance. Film buffs may enjoy this one for its style, but I question whether anyone else will.

Rating:
Summary: ZZZZZZZ......
Review: This movie was ridiculous. I absoutely do not believe that the woman at the film festival was so enthralled in making out that she did not notice her jewels were being stolen. Considering the ensemble she was wearing, that is highly unlikely. On top of that, what fool would make out with a stranger in a public bathroom??? I'm not getting it...I didn't "get" the rest of the movie either because I fell asleep...It was slow and boring; make better use of your time and watch something else.

Rating:
Summary: rebecca saves it
Review: I think it is fairly obvious to everyone who watched this movie that the plot is not very original at all. What I do not understand is why people complain about it in their reviews??? For those reviewers who crave for complicated story lines, I suggest Agatha Christie. For the rest, there are enough number of details in Femme Fatale for an erotic-thriller that almost anyone would like to watch it for a second time to absorb what is really going on. Also, Rebecca Romijn Stamos' performance is outstanding. It is worth to see this movie to witness that.

Rating:
Summary: Trite, unbelievable, corny
Review: All that refers to the climax. Despite what all people say in their reviews, there is only one reason the opening sequence is watchable (I'll leave it to you to find out, but you'll hardly notice the robbery taking place). The film develops, and develops, but the end is one of the corniest, most contrived ones I've ever seen. Are we supposed to BUY this (as in, accept the ending, not buy the movie...although it still applies)? Again, if you still want to see it, I won't ruin it...the end does a fine job of that on its own.