An updated noir thriller that decisively puts the fatale back into femme fatale, THE LAST SEDUCTION is a dark, expertly contrived display of paranoid nastiness; it's so gleefully mean that only the most tender-hearted viewer could resist going along for the ride.
Ambitious Bridget Gregory (Linda Fiorentino) and her malleable husband Clay (Bill Pullman), a doctor, have just pulled off a drug deal that's left them with $700,000, which Clay intends to use to pay off his gambling debts. While Clay's in the shower, she coolly takes the money and runs, ending
up in a friendly little town called Beston. There she sizes up local stud Mike (Peter Berg) in a bar and, having deemed him adequate to her purposes, rocks his world and sets about guaranteeing her future with deadly precision.
Released theatrically after limited airings on the HBO cable channel, John Dahl's THE LAST SEDUCTION joined a growing handful of films--including Tamra Davis's GUNCRAZY and Dahl's previous picture, RED ROCK WEST (both 1993)--to have transcended the stigma attached to made-for-TV movies. Unlike
such bloated erotic thrillers as BASIC INSTINCT, which wallow in their own excesses, THE LAST SEDUCTION gets straight to the cold heart of classic noir: life is a stacked deck and only the most twisted, cunning, and ruthless stand a chance of survival. Jeffrey Jur's photography is excellent, dark
and smoky at night, crisp and misleadingly clear during the day, and the production design is a marvel of smoky bars and bland suburban houses. But what really makes THE LAST SEDUCTION cook is the performances, especially Linda Fiorentino's praying-mantis-in-lace turn as the amoral Bridget. Though
the film made many critics' Ten Best lists and Fiorentino was frequently singled out as an Oscar candidate, THE LAST SEDUCTION could not be included on Academy Awards nomination ballots because it debuted on television. leave a comment
