Last Seduction, The

Although emulating classic film noir The Last Seduction stretches plausibility beyond breaking point. Perhaps it is because the 1940s were simpler times and crime was thus a lot easier and films relied more on the audience imagining events which were only alluded to in dialogue that they didn’t seem so dependent on fortuitous alignments of intention and outcome. I suspect however that they simply were more stylish  - exhilarating more becasue ofthe charisma of their stars, the carefully crafted hard-boiled dialogue and the delciciously seedy ambience rather than the permutations of their plot. Dahl’s film is exactly the reverse – it’s all plot and falls short in terms of star power, ambience and dialogue.

Linda Fiorentino is the Barbara Stanwyck-like femme fatale, Bridget Gregory who double crosses her drug-dealing husband (Bill Pullman) and runs off with $1,000,000 (i was never clear where this money came form). She lands in a hick-town in upstate New York where she gets friendly with home-town boy, Mike Swale (Peter Berg). With ideas of getting out of the small time, he is swept off his feet by her sophistication and raw sexuality but he doesn’t realize that he’s being set–up by an archetypal black widow.

Until we get to this point The Last Seduction is quite engaging. Fiorentino is both sexy and tough and Bill Pullman cracks wise in what is almost a comedic role. Unfortunately Peter Berg doesn’t have the screen presence to balance Fiorentino and as the extent of her wickedness is revealed her shenanigans grow less and less interesting and the film becomes increasingly superficial in executing the elaborate plot.

For reasons which escape me the film is critically high regarded and has near-cult status although it lacks the economy and credibility of Dahl’s previous modern noir, Red Rock West (1993).

 

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