Review of Femme Fatale (2002) by Kevin D — 16 Sep 2012

Good movie. Good fucking movie! This mind-fuck of an intelligent noirish/erotic crime thriller is another masterpiece from its master director, Brian De Palma. The greatness of this movie starts with the screenplay.

De Palma wrote a fine screenplay that was smart and addicting. The first half of the movie was told with the bare minimum of dialogue, yet it was handled in such a classy and delicate fashion that the narrative was still told perfectly, kind of like the first half of Wall-E.

Even though the first half of the film was told with the bare minimum of dialogue, everything was still exquisitely well written. The shots and story telling required great thought and penmanship on De Palma's behalf.

In the second half, De Palma used more repartee in the dialogue as the characters tried to outsmart each other. This movie seemed to be Brian De Palm'a statement on women (a negative outlook for the most part) and as the title suggests, the film is about how women manipulate men.

The film is also partly about fate and trying to run away from the past and keeping skeletons in the closet. The acting was very good, surprisingly, considering Rebecca Romijn and Antonio Banderas were in the lead roles.

They aren't known for their acting abilities, but they were presented with the right script and both of them were perfect for their roles. This movie was a true original that was kind of like a good chess player that is always three moves ahead of you.

With that being said, this movie was somewhat similar to De Palma's Body Double. The cinematography and style on display here were original as well and the film had De Palma's signature on it.

I'm not going to discuss any plot details whatsoever, because I knew nothing about the plot going into it and that is the best way this movie can be appreciated. This well-written and well crafted movie is one that should not be missed.

It will be appreciated especially by big Brian De Palma fans. For everyone else, this is an underrated movie that is a lot of fun, classy, and exciting.