The Last Seduction Reviews

[Highly rated reviewer]

Seduced!

Wonderful script! And a sexy but wholly convincing performance from the delicious Linda Fiorentina. Oh, and then there's the ending too!

A classic modern noir

Linda Fiorentino's finest movie by far - the ultimate bitch who'll stop at nothing to get ahead. She starts the movie as a supervisor at a dodgy telesales company, how much more evil can you get? (Sorry to anyone who works in telesales. Actually, no, I'm not.)

After leaving husband Bill Pullman in the lurch, she goes on the run with a pile of money they'd agreed to share. But it takes time to get a d.i.v.o.r.c.e. and what's a smart girl to do while hiding in a little small town?

Have some fun with some disposable man, of course.

The problem starts when he doesn't want to be a one-night fling, but wants a Relationship.

Oh well. He'll learn.

I can't say much more without giving away the plot. Let me just repeat: she's very very nasty and it's a delight to watch her.

Good 'Film Noir' Type Thriller

Linda Fiorentino plays an excellent bitch with a heart of stone in this nice little thriller. With more twists that a really twisty thing, you are constantly left wondering what is going to happen next. Quite slow moving at first, but really worth staying with (especially for the ending).

[Highly rated reviewer]

The Last Seduction

Having set up a drug deal with her husband (Pullman) Bridget Gregory (Fiorentino) steals the $700,000 they made on it while he is in the shower and moves to a new town called Beston. Desperate to get back to New York and start spending she ensnares local boy Mike (Berg) in a complex plot to tie up her loose ends.

John Dahl's neo-noir is one of the best examples of the genre since Billy Wilder's defining masterpiece Double Indemnity, that it was ineligible for Oscars because it debuted on US cable channel HBO is one of the great crimes of those awards, if only because Linda Fiorentino should have won.

As her Lawyer (Walsh) puts it in one of the funniest lines in an often wry script Bridget is a self serving bitch, she's also as memorable, as sexy and as scary a femme fatale as the screen has to offer. Fiorentino is completely believeable in the role and you can see why Mike is seduced by her.

As Mike Peter Berg (now a director, he made his debut with the underrated Very Bad Things) has a naievite that works for the role and the same moral responses as the audience to Bridget, he's our identification point and his understated performance works well for the film, allowing Fiorentino to be the charismatic presence she needs to be for the plot to work.

And what a plot it is. Intricate, clever, and often surprising Dahl's screenplay plays with the conventions of Noir and gives it a jolt of sexuality that brings it into the more permissive 90's.

The supporting cast is minimal but memorable with Pullman and an excellent Walsh the standouts.

The ending leaves things open and unresolved (leading to a sequel which involved none of the team from the original film and, by all accounts, was terrible).

The Last Seduction is a great film; clever, sexy, funny and always one step ahead of you the audience and if you've not yet seen it you really should try to.

Very funny, very black and totally compelling

If you are expecting an erotic thriller, you'll be disappointed. This is not 'Basic Instinct'. But if you like watching a woman behaving badly, you'll love this. Linda Fiorentina is brilliant and totally convincing as the bitch of the century, and delivers some brilliant one liners with absolute panache. In one scene her fast-talking lawyer asks her if his lips are moving too fast for her.

'Not fast enough, as I recall,' she responds dryly. I'm a man, but I thoroughly enjoyed watching her run rings around all the men who get in her way. This film is a liberating treat for any down-trodden woman!

Dahl's most popular film - overrated?

This modern 'film noir' has all the trappings of the genre - a woman who betrays her man and takes all she can get, etc etc. The only unusual twist is that she gets away with it!

Ultimately though the female lead (Fiorentino) is uncovincing. I watched the film after seeing Dahl's first effort 'Kill me again' in which the schemeing female lead is much more convincing and the plot twists seem more coherent, although there are surprises!

I much preferred Dahl's first effort to this one.

Excellent movie

Saw this some time ago has always stuck in my memory. Refreshingly different the delicious Linda Fiorentino is sexy, evil, cunning and manipulative throughout.

The film does not go for a cop out happy ending with everything OK bad guys getting their comeuppance etc. Rent if you like something a bit less formulaic.

Super bitch alert

Linda Fiorentino is perfectly cast as the sexy super bitch. You can easily see how the men she preys on fall under her spell. Lots of twists along the way to keep you guessing the outcome. Well worth watching

Good film, but poor DVD quality!

This is a great, pitch-black film with Linda Florentino (think that's the correct spelling) with a career-best performance as a black widow-style thief and murderess. After making off with stacks of cash from her pathetic husband she gradually concocts a scheme to...but that would be spoiling it. Part of the fun of this film (and it is incredibly, blackly funny) is watching the main character spin everyone around her little finger, never once showing weakness or cowardice. You won't agree or sympathise with her (she's never anything but pretty repellent) but you also slightly admire her in a kind of twisted way.

I enjoyed this film but unfortunately the dvd I got through the post wasn't the best quality - the background music, for the first half of the film at least, was so loud I could hardly hear what the characters were saying! Which spoilt the film a bit and it why I've only given it 3 stars instead of 4.

Could be better

Rather slow to start but does improve later. However I was disappointed that there was not more action as reading other reviews I expected some excitement but this film failed to deliver.