FEMME FATALE

FEMME FATALE<br /><br />After expending his energies on a pair of generic, effects laden studio thrill rides MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE and MISSION TO MARS and an only slightly more effective suspense thriller SNAKE EYES in recent years, Brian De Palma was long overdue to return to what may be considered his main dialogue with moviegoers: the twisted tales of obsession, deceit and death hes woven so memorably in efforts such as SISTERS, DRESSED TO KILL, BLOW OUT and BODY DOUBLE. The film that brings De Palma back to his storytelling center is FEMME FATALE, a moody, gleefully stylish noir thriller of the type he can craft better than just about any modern director. The result is a flawed, credibility straining piece of big screen eye candy and a hell of a lot of fun.<br /><br />Model turned X MEN villainess Rebecca Romijn Stamos plays the venomous, wonderfully unpredictable title character, Laure Ash, whose ability to alter her shape in shifting situations puts the mutant Mystique to shame. De Palma personally scripting one of his films for the first time since 1992s RAISING CAIN tells us everything we need to know about his antiheroine in the bravura opening section, which has Laure go from studying Barbara Stanwyck in DOUBLE INDEMNITY to staging a daring jewelry heist at the Cannes International Film Festival to pulling a fast one on her male cohorts, all without once losing her icy blonde cool.<br /><br />Alas, things dont proceed quite so smoothly for Laure from there on out, and shes soon on the run from said cohorts especially Eriq Ebouaneys fearsome main baddie, who doesnt take kindly to her attempting to make off with the loot. Laure solves this problem the way anyone would: She replaces a suicidal brunette dead ringer for herself also Romijn Stamos whose life happens to intersect with hers at exactly the right moment. Without giving too much away, lets just say that even this neat trick doesnt permanently end her troubles, and her reinvented character eventually faces dangers from multiple fronts, including the threat of exposure posed by a well meaning photographer Antonio Banderas hired to snap a shot of her.<br /><br />In the end, Fanboys rejoice: Rebecca Romijn Stamos is Brian De Palmas FEMME FATALE.<br /><br />2002 Warner Bros.<br /><br />a moviegoer actually attempting to take the films largely nonsensical plot seriously is simply on the wrong track. The only real story logic at work here is De Palmas desire to surprise us with endless head spinning reversals as his protagonist goes from villainess to heroine and back again, from sympathetic victim to coldhearted predator, from an American badly faking a French accent to a convincingly French sounding Frenchwoman faking. well, its all a little bit confusing to get it straight in one viewing.<br /><br />It all adds up to the juiciest of breakthrough roles for the stunning Romijn Stamos, whose first coup was simply winning such a complex part on the strength of a big screen resume limited to some body painted action work in X MEN and Russian accented biker badassing in the much maligned remake of ROLLERBALL. Her more than respectable work in what amounts to a series of very different character bits suggests Hollywood may have found the Holy Grail at last a supermodel who can carry a lead role! Shes particularly good when bouncing off the ever affable Banderas, whose very secondary co lead is no more than framing material for her all dominating character or characters. And what can possibly be said about the steamy moment when she ravishes Victorias Secret model Rie Rasmussen in a Cannes ladys room as part of the scheme to steal the serpent shaped piece of jewelry that makes up most of the latters costume? Teenage boys of America, start warming up your DVD players.<br /><br />As usual with De Palma, a visual stylist and technician almost without peer among American directors, FEMME FATALEs main problems are script issues in particular, the sense that this rather slick, superficial film means less and less the further one gets into it. Give the man a script like CARRIE, THE UNTOUCHABLES or CASUALTIES OF WAR, and there simply isnt anybody who can give it more impact on screen. Even his widely thrashed 90s MISSIONs had a couple of brilliant, visual driven sequences each, and the first half hour of SNAKE EYES has to rank among his most impressive tours de force even if the picture fell apart not long after. FEMME FATALE gets further than most of De Palmas recent efforts by avoiding the whole linear storytelling thing altogether for the most part, though the naughty nightmare that results is almost certainly a couple of notches too arty for the mainstream cineplex crowd.<br /><br />Viewers will certainly be divided about a major last act curveball that changes the meaning of the entire film the reviewer found it to be a cop out your mileage may differ, but darn it if De Palma doesnt save the ending at the very last second with a powerful final shot that manages to fit the fragmented storyline into a strange kind of order. Leave it to Hitchcocks most faithful heir to leave us with a picture of pictures that comments on the essence of picture making. The Master himself would have loved it.