Femme Fatale (2002)

Mystery woman Laure Ash (Rebecca Romijn) and her accomplices steal a valuable jewel during the Cannes film festival. The heist goes wrong and she escapes with the jewel. In Paris, she's mistaken for her doppelganger Lily by a couple. Laure gets thrown off a balcony by her accomplice Racine. She wakes up after the couple brings her to Lily's apartment. Lily had disappeared after her husband and daughter's deaths. Lily returns home and commits suicide. Laure takes over Lily's identity. She flies to American. On the plane, she catches the eye of Bruce Watts (Peter Coyote). Seven years later, she returns to Paris as the wife of Ambassador Watts. Nicolas Bardo (Antonio Banderas) is a paparazzi who gets entangled with her. Her old accomplices Racine and Black Tie are still after her.This has many of the hallmarks of a Brian De Palma film. His style is everywhere. The movie starts with a overly complicated robbery. Then it goes off with so many complicated coincidences that it becomes unbelievable. It becomes an exercise more than a story. There are also a couple of questions about logic. It may be more advantageous to keep the first act a secret from the audience and reveal each secret for shock value. The movie is too complicated for its own good.

Brian DePalma + Rebecca Romijn & Antonio Banderas = One of the most seductive, entertaining and riveting movies i have ever had the opportunity to lay my eyes on. FEMME FATALE is extraordinary. The location, cast, dialogue and probably the most pertinent of all, the diabolical hand of DePalma. This is a must see. Even in 2013. Whether a first-timer of DePalma or one of his fans, you will definitely enjoy this treat. The lies and alibis will leave you reeling for more. Do not miss out on this.Having watched the female lead in Eastwick and her co-star in Original Sin, i just knew Femme Fatale would not disappoint. And I was right!You will not be disappointed. A definite 8/10. Paris, a hunk,a very Fatale Femme and one helluva plot twist? What more could one ask for?

This is a heist movie, and what you see isn't always what you get. Director Brian De Palma, a Hitchcock imitator is good at illustrating this misdirection; indeed anyone who has seen a Hitchcock thriller will be able to recognize some similarities. Unfortunately, character development is at level zero, and while that may be okay for the heist scenes, it renders the bulk of the film boring.I really can't say much about the plot without giving anything away, but I will say that the heist scenes are interesting, and generate a little bit of tension. However, with all the gloss and glamor evident, it still feels pretty trashy.I can't say much about the acting either, again not to give anything away, but also because none of the actors have much to work with. The actors are okay, but Rebecca Romijn-Stamos's part could have been better cast. She does however show a lot of herself and seems pretty comfortable doing it, which these days, says a lot (and severely limits the casting choices).This could have been a much better film had we had some vested interest in the characters. As it is, it's just bunch of nice looking scenes with a lot of trick mirrors.

DePalma makes another attempt to channel Hitchcock and comes out the loser.This film starts off with a heist sequence which, despite its huge implausibilities, turns out to be the best part of the movie despite being lumbered with a score which is trying (and failing) to be Ravel's Bolero. It then descends into a "plot" which intertwines the threat of payback for betrayal with various goings on involving a paparazzo, before pulling a whopper of a plot twist out of nowhere (so huge that it it is tantamount to conning the audience) before wrapping up with a showpiece sequence which would have been effective had it not been predicated on the tosh which precedes it.Within this mess DePalma lobs assorted Hitchcockian motifs and themes - the blonde woman, identity games, man in the wrong place at the wrong time, minor events having major effects, man framed for crime he didn't commit etc. - and dresses them up with assorted Hitchcockian directorial flourishes.Sadly, none of this suffices to compensate for a plot which is so massively flawed (and for which the director - who also wrote the movie - must, one fears, take responsibility).Rebecca Romijn battles valiantly with a role in which her character's motivations change seemingly by the minute (her character changes from a rogue to a decent person by the end, a fundamental change for which the rationale appears to be the aforementioned plot twist) and where she is required to deliver dialogue in three different languages, which she does fluently. Peter Coyote turns up, collects his cheque, and departs. Antonion Banderas looks as confused as his character, and well he might.This is a poor effort, trying hard to be a classic in the Master's style, and failing miserably.