Review of Femme Fatale (2002) by Doctor S — 21 Nov 2012

I'm at a loss trying to fathom how terrible this screenplay is. I guess they were attempting to fashion an original twist, but their bad idea results in rendering 70% of the movie a complete waste of time. Throw in a handful of ridiculous contrivances and you've got a real mess.

Rebecca Romijn has a picture-perfect body, it's her subpar acting that needs a facelift. Antonio Banderas is barely OK which is further undermined by the fact that his character is a total imbecile. Other than Romijn's sexy dance, the best part is a 20-minute opening caper sequence set to a jaunty Bolero-like score, I scrutinized the credits but couldn't pick out the name or composer of the piece. Many points about the caper are as ridiculous as the rest of the movie, but at least there is some excitement about it.

I have bumped up the score of a bad movie before due to the presence of breathtaking beauty, and Rebecca Romijn is about as breathtaking as they come. She shows the most skin she ever has in this film, but the story is so awful that she could've been naked the whole time and I still couldn't justify anything higher. That would put it even with Taking Lives, which was also terrible but Femme Fatale is decisively even worse.