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Directed by: Brian De Palma Starring: Rebecca Romijin-Stamos, Antonio Banderas Femme Fatale has everything you would expect from a Brian De Palma film: suspense, mystery, eroticism and all the other hallmarks found throughout his career and the genres he works with. The story follows a thief (Stamos), who double crosses her partners on a jewel heist at the Cannes film festival and flees with the goods. One of the betrayed criminals eventually catches up with her, and throws her down three or so stories, landing her in a temporary coma. After she awakes, she finds herself adopted by a family who believe her to be their daughter, who fled in despair after her husband and daughter died. At first, she thinks hopes will be a fresh start for her, but after she becomes hounded by a paparazzi (Banderas), she finds her new identity exposed and threatened by the people she betrayed earlier. This film is dripping with De Palma’s style, so if you don’t consider yourself a fan of his, you might want to stay away. Sweeping camera movements, excessive split-frame and pausing on select objects make up a large part of the formal style of the film, recalling Hitchcock’s ideas towards spectatorship (who De Palma admittedly worships). The structure of the film becomes an exercise in tedium, moving without any immediate sense of direction or anticipated destination. It will probably appeal to fans of suspense (particularly De Palma and Hitch), but it really becomes absurd after awhile, as the film drags on without really accomplishing anything. Worst of all, everything is thrown out the window toward the end of the film with an incredibly frustrating plot-twist. The only thing that saves the film from this is the “cinema-cinema” sensibility which is displays, aiming more at recalling the conventions and classic films of the genre than constructing its own story. Despite the somewhat artificial structure of the narrative (which is somewhat self-exposed as the film jumps forward in time while none of the characters age), De Palma’s style lends the audience towards trusting in his filmmaking, due to his he ability to sustain a feeling of confidence and purpose no matter how ridiculous things get. He also does well in capturing the hip attitude of the European environment really well, both through his own sense of style and the locations, costumes and music that flesh out the world he is trying to show. The opening sequence of the heist is stunning, but the rest of the film can’t live up to the expectations it creates. The acting is mixed for the most part. Stamos is surprisingly adept, considering she was a pretty inexperienced actress at the time, and her part was of a complicated nature (which is really a performance within a performance). There are parts when she fails to deliver, but on the whole she carries herself well. Banderas is pretty dull though, and makes it hard to believe why his character puts up with all of the stuff Stamos puts him through, basically just wearing a look of mild discomfort no matter how bad things get for him. The supporting cast is solid, especially the other members of Stamos’s band of thieves, though they aren’t given enough time to really strut their stuff. I was surprised to find this movie was almost entirely in French. Not that I’m complaining, but from what I remember of the ad campaign, it was sold as sort of a Basic Instinct/Fatal Attraction style movie, which it definitely is not. Nonetheless, the impenetrable plot combined with the language barrier will definitely put off casual cinema-goers. RATING: 3.5 PROS: De Palma style, Stamos is hotter than hot CONS: Banderas, horrible twist ending ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0280665/
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Jun 6, 2004 01:11
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| # ? Apr 18, 2024 07:50 |
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