Review of The Last Seduction (1994) by Kenneth L — 31 Jul 2011

This is a very good film noir with a really memorable central character. It's got all the familiar elements of classic noir - money, guns, and a femme fatale - and it even references Double Indemnity a couple of times. It's the kind of movie James M. Cain might have been proud of.

An icy woman and her husband pull off a $700,000 drug deal, but then she immediately runs off with the money. While he tries to track her down, she starts an affair with a poor sap in a small town, and plans to use him in ways that aren't immediately apparent. The story does bear some similarity to Double Indemnity, but the main character here is actually even fiercer than Barbara Stanwyck's in the classic film.

Linda Fiorentino gives a remarkably good, intense performance as one of the most fatale femmes around. She's an absolutely relentless character. She seems to transcend normal evil and become this kind of Nietzschean uber-femme, who simply laughs at any notion of morality and imposes her will in everyone around her. The way the screenplay arranges all of her various manipulations is pretty great. I haven't seen Fiorentino in too many other memorable roles, which is a shame, because she seems to be a truly great actress in this role. Bill Pullman is good as her husband, and proves that he can do nasty characters despite his nice-guy image. Peter Berg is convincing as the pitiful, gullible object of her titular last seduction.

Visually, the movie is pretty average for its time. It has an unfortunately cheesy jazzy soundtrack that hasn't aged well and today makes the film feel too much like a comedy. Director John Dahl made this film and another good neonoir called Red Rock West around the same time, but since then he's mostly directed a couple of okay movies and some good TV episodes (including episodes of Dexter). Somehow he never became a very big name, which is too bad, because he is good at making these twisty thrillers with great villains.