The Last Seduction

Plot synopsis:
The film opens on busy traffic in New York City, quickly moving to a lead generation room where Bridget Gregory (Linda Fiorentino) oversees the callers. She clearly expects results, offering bonuses and insulting the callers reminding one of them "ask for the sale four times, every time. Got it?" When one of the salesmen makes a sale she offers him either $100.00 or $1000.00 worth of rare commemorative coins. When he chooses the $100.00 she says "Wise man."Meanwhile, Bridget's husband, Clay Gregory (Bill Pullman), is meeting some drug dealers under a bridge with a case full of "pharmaceutical cocaine." He hands them is case, and tries to take the case of money from one of the money only to have a gun pulled on him. He lets go and starts sobbing "one stupid mistake." assuming he's either getting busted or robbed. It turns out it's neither, they just don't want to give up the case, and they dump the money out, leaving it on the ground for him.Bridget gets to her and Clay's apartment, finding a message from Clay that his meeting was moved back. She's excited when he comes home, asking if he got the money. Clay starts pulling the bills out of his shirt and Bridget remarks on his appearance, "Do you walk the streets like that? You're an idiot!" Clay responds by slapping her and then quickly apologizes, telling her he's on edge from dealing with "scary people." and offering to let her hit him anywhere, hard. He remarks "this is what we worked for" and reminds her that she's a "criminal mastermind" He also mentions that he'll pay off the loan shark tomorrow, to which Bridget says "maybe he'll forget." Clay goes off to the shower, yelling into the living room for Bridget's opinion on dinner plans. "Whatever you want" she says, as she writes a note, (backwards) takes the money and leaves. Clay realizes she's gone and finds the note which he reads in the mirror, says "How are we supposed to celebrate?"
He calls out to her in the street "You better run!"Bridget takes a cab to her own car, takes off her ring and drives out of the city, for Chicago, stopping in Beston when she gets low on gas. Before leaving she stops into a Beston bar, where Mike Swale (Peter Berg) is chatting with his friends about a recent trip he made to Buffalo, which didn't work out, landing him back in Beston. When a girl hits on Mike, he hushes his friends from ooohing about it saying "These women are anchors. You get too close to one, Beston's got you for life." This is clearly a regular thing for Mike as his friends react saying "Here we go again." One of Mike's friends says "Tell me about the wife." pointing out Mike's wedding band. Mike complains that he can't get it off. Mike starts complaining about being stuck in Beston again, and his friend asks when he'll leave. Mike answers "How long's it take to grow a new set of balls?" Mike then notices Bridget enter the bar. The bartender intentionally snubs her, asking if anyone in the bar needs a drink while she's asking for one. Mike tells his friend, "This might be my new set of balls." Mike orders her a drink which the bartender is happy to get now. Trying to make small talk, Mike says "You're not from around here?" and Bridget answers "Fuck off." before grabbing a table for herself. Mike approaches her table and is told to go away.
Mike: Well, I haven't finished charming you yet.
Bridget: You haven't started.
Mike: Give me a chance.
Bridget: Go find yourself a nice little cow girl, make nice little cow babies and leave me alone.
Mike: [leaning in] I'm hung like a horse. Think about it.
Bridget: Let's see
Mike: Excuse me?
Bridget: Mr Ed. Let's see.
Mike: Look, I tried to be nice. I can see that's something you're not...
Bridget: Now I'm trying. I can be very nice when I try. Sit down. Mike is shocked when she check's out his horse claim as soon as he sits down. saying "I never buy anything sight unseen" She then quizzes him about his past. Mike claims he's had twelve lovers, no prostitutes, and emphasizes that he's never slept with a man. She then asks about his place. Mike says he also has a name prompting Bridget to say "No names. Meet me outside."Mike wakes up looking for her, and finds Bridget talking on his phone and checking out his fridge. She calls her lawyer, Frank (J.T. Walsh) and explains her situation. Frank tells her her husband is entitled to half of anything bought with the cash, so to keep it in cash until a divorce can be finalized which he estimates could take two years. he also advises her to stay put as Clay will know to look for her in Chicago. She runs out without saying good bye to Mike, and he runs outside yelling after her. Bridget picks up a newspaper and finds a job opening in the classifieds for a Lead Generation Manager at Interstate Insurance Company. The employer is impressed with her resume, and she tells him a story about her husband beating her, which is forcing her to hide and use an assumed name. She choose the name Wendy Kroy. She runs into Mike in the hallway, who works at the same company. She tells him to act as if the sex never happened.Bridget rents a place and calls Frank again from her office. Frank tells her that Clay called talking about "a loan shark and his thumb." He adds "Anyone check you for a heartbeat lately?" He tells her that if she won't send Clay some cash to tell him to quit calling. She says she'll call Clay and Frank tells her to be careful as he might trace it. She responds "He's not that clever." She gives Clay a call and we see that Clay's thumb is bandaged. The operator asks if he'll take the call and Clay asks "Is this Bridget in Chicago or Bridget in Dallas?" Bridget tells the operator to disconnect. After work she goes to the bar again, where Mike immediately sees her. She takes him outside to have sex in a not very hidden spot behind the bar. Mike takes the opportunity to ask "Where do I fit in?" and isn't pleased when she says "You're my designated fuck."They meet for sex regularly and Mike keeps pushing for information which she doesn't give. He continues to complain about being "kept at arm's length." She continually makes light of his need for more than sex. Bridget calls Clay from the office again and asks him to get the number from a pay phone down the block and she'll call back. We see that Clay has a guy, Harlan (Bill Nunn) there to trace the call. Clay runs around the apartment to sound winded and when she calls back he gives her a number he already has. Clay runs in place again holding a cordless phone given to him by Harlan, while jumping rope in the apartment. When Bridget remarks it sounds quiet, he opens a window. He asks for the money back and Bridget says "It's mine, you hit me." Clay tells her the $100,000.00 he borrowed from the loan shark is now $150,000.00. She offers to pay off the loan shark and his private detective and leave him ten grand. The phone rings in the apartment tipping her off and she hangs up. The trace turns up the area code, giving them the city she's in. Frank advises her to stay put since she has an alias and it's not likely they'll find her.Bridget and Mike show up to work at the same time and Bridget explains that "a woman loses 50% of her authority when people find out who she's sleeping with." Mike protests, but when they get in the building she slaps Mike and acts as if he's groping her.Harlan and Clay discuss finding Bridget and Harlan explains he doesn't have enough information to do anything. Their talking is interrupted by a "customer" buying prescription drugs from Clay. Harlan tells Clay that she likely has an alias. Clay sees a "New York" poster in the mirror, and recalling Bridget's backard writing skill, tells Harlan that she's using "Wendy Kroy" because all she's thinking about is getting back to New York.Bridget approaches Mike at the bar five days after the office incident. Mike is still complaining about wanting more. Mike tells Bridget about his job as a claims adjuster, which she finds boring until he mentioned he talked with a woman whose husband died, and the woman remarked that she should have killed him years ago. Mike also explains that he knew the husband was cheating from his credit report, as he had credit cards for women other than his wife. Bridget convinces Mike that they should make a list of women with cheating husbands, who have big insurance policies. She then calls one of the numbers and sells the woman her husband's murder, before telling the woman it was a joke. She then tells Mike that she's using the activity to be more than sex partners when he doesn't want to play along. Mike does a call of his own and she lets him come back to her place for the first time. In bed, Bridget asks Mike to tell her about his wife. He asks "How'd you know?" and she says "I didn't." She prompts him to talk about her wife but he isn't forthcoming saying "It was a mistake." Mike implies that Bridget coming to town was significant and when pressed about it he says "You've been out there. You came here, and you chose me. So I was right, I'm bigger than this town." Bridget: So what's wrong?
Mike: You can't stop reminding me that you're bigger than me.Bridget gets to work the next day and hears in a hush hush tone from the receptionist that "There was a black man here to see you." She asks what he wanted and the receptionist says "Wouldn't say. He was black though." Bridget can't get ahold of Frank and later that night at Mike's place, she reveals that she's on the run. She tells him she "made a sale." referring to murdering cheating husbands. Mike isn't at all interested and turns her down going off to play hockey without her. She gets into her car to leave and Harlan gets into the car with her holding a gun on her. Bridget offers to share with him instead of Clay and banters with him about leaving her money. She teases him asking "Is it true what they say about size?" when she doesn't let up he unzips his pants. She speeds up while he does this and slams the car into a telephone pole counting on the drivers side airbag to protect her, although Harlan gets thrown through the windshield and killed. At the hospital she tells the police that Harlan had planned to rape her. Mike shows up at the hospital and asks how hockey was, playing up his guilt. She pushes him about the murder for hire again. He won't agree and she tells him she'll do it herself rather than stay there forever.Bridget calls Clay and he remarks that he heard about Clay. He tells her that he's hired a local PI to watch her, parked outside her house. He tells her that now that he knows where she is he's willing to hire a sociopath to take her out. Bridget offers to buy a week, paying the loan shark while she settles things. Clay asks "What made you do this?"
Bridget: I don't know. You slapped me.
Clay: That's just an excuse
Bridget: You're probably right, but I get to slap you back.
Clay agrees to her proposition as long as the local PI keeps tailing her.Back at the office, she tries to make travel arrangements without giving her name. Mike listens outside the door and seems concerned that she's going away. She tells him she's just going to New York for the weekend. At her place, Bridget bakes cookies for the PI, dropping one and putting a board with nails under his tire when she picks it up. A cab pulls up and she asks to go to Buffalo. She visits city hall and gets the name of Mike's wife, Trish Swale. She then visits Mike's wife and heads home.Back at the bar, one of Mike's friends tells him that Bridget asked what Mike's secret was, and propositioned him. Mike hits his friend who then says that he came onto her and she shot him down. Mike is distraught and drunk, calls Bridget from a payphone while drinking from a paper bag, leaving her a confessional message about loving her and having a hard time trusting himself after Buffalo. Bridget listens to the message and scribbles a note with Mike's name in a heart. Mike drives over later to erase the message and finds the scribbling while Bridget watches from under the bed. She leaves a ticket for Mike to find coming in, that makes it appear that she went to Miami. Mike assumes she killed the guy she'd talked about. Mike pulls out the note, to prove that she loves him, but Bridget kicks him out. She can't help but laugh afterwards.Mike approaches her at the office, asking for details about the guy she killed, telling her that he's trying to accept what she's done. She tells him she's leaving without him and he asks what he can do to convince her to take him. She tells him that he needs to do what she did and that would make them equals. She presents him with information on a guy named Cahill. Mike refuses again. and as he leaves Bridget smiles and writes a letter claiming to be from his wife Trish, telling him she got a job at Interstate Insurance. We see Mike opening and reading the letter.Mike shows up at Bridget's place, exclaiming that he'll do it as long as they never come back to Beston. Bridget calls the police and claims the PI watching her exposed himself to local kids. While the police hassle the PI, Bridget and Mike take off. On the ride to New York, Bridget grills him about the details of the murder, which involve restraining and gagging Cahill and acting as if he's robbing the place and stabbing him to death. He asks why he has to shut the lights off afterwards and she tells him it's psychology, to tell himself he's finished an unpleasant chore.We see Mike find Cahill on the mailbox tag. He enters the apartment and we see that he's in Clay's apartment. Clay doesn't seem intimidated, and offers some wisecracks. He critiques Mike's methods telling him if he's gagged he can't tell him where everything is. Mike can't bring himself to stab Clay and he exclaims to himself "I can't do it Wendy! I just cant!" This prompts an outburst from the gagged Clay, which catches his interest. He lets Clay explain. He gives Mike the details and he tells Mike to find something else in the apartment that says Cahill. Clay explains that she is planning to finger him for the murder, and figures that the cops are already on the way. assuming he's to signal her somehow, which they realize is the reason that Mike is to shut the lights off. Bridget watches the window from the street and when the lights go off she heads up. Mike kicks a wedding picture across the floor to her and confronts her about her plan. Clay is still bound as Bridget has the handcuff keys. She sprays mace down his throat, killing him and tells Mike that now they have a future. She then suggests they "roleplay" although Mike is stunned at what just happened. She tells him "You killed my husband and raped me!" Mike pushes her away and holds the gun on her, telling her she's going to jail. He picks up the phone and Bridget tells him that Trish wasn't coming to Beston. We see in flashback that Trish is actually a man. Bridget taunts him about it, and he slaps her and dares him to rape her. Mike is over the edge now and gives in, not realizing that Bridget has dialed 911 while laying over the desk. Bridget makes sure to yell, "You killed my husband!" while he says "You want to be raped! I'll rape you!" the 911 operator of course hears everything.Mike is in prison talking to his lawyer, who tells him that the man Bridget claimed to kill is still alive and that the case against him is airtight and there's nothing he can do without one piece of evidence. He mentions that he's likely facing the death penalty. He tells the lawyer, "There might be one thing." We then see Bridget in a limo handling the tag that reads "Cahill" She burns it with her lighter as the limo drives her away.

Tags: cult, revenge, neo noir, murder, violence

Review:
Her character is tough, self-centered, mean-spirited, and sexy femme fatale who absconds with her husband's drug money and tries to get her ninny of a boyfriend to kill him.
An incredibly amoral and very sexy woman (Linda Fiorentino) is on the lam from her husband (Bill Pullman) after stealing thousands of dollars from him.
If you think its subsequent success taught Hollywood suits anything, you just aren't cut out for the movie business.With an even better script by Steve Barancik, Dahl found the ideal lead to play the very fatale femme of `The Last Seduction.' Linda Fiorentino, someone else who hasn't been well served by Hollywood, gave one of the great performances of the 1990s as Bridget/Wendy.
With a small but outstanding cast of what were then B-list actors, everyday settings and a tiny budget, the director kept `The Last Seduction' focused on the basics needed to make this genre work.Without revealing too much of the plot, Bridget is on the lam after stealing $700,000 in drug proceeds from her sleazy, abusive husband, well played by Bill Pullman just before he became a good-guy leading man.
Bill Nunn does yeoman work as the detective on her trail.But the key to this sort of black widow movie is a willing sap, and Peter Berg makes one of the best.
He's looking to get out again, and when Bridget breezes into the local shot-and-beer joint with her `city trash' attitude, he's done for.As another reviewer chooses to emphasize, with her skinny legs and barely pubescent, pancake-flat chest Linda Fiorentino is the scrawniest femme fatale in the history of film noir.
(In Hollywood's homoerotic subtext, `buddy movie' means no women allowed.)Fiorentino did hook up aagin with John Dahl in the highly forgettable `Unforgettable,' weighed down by a bigger budget, second-rate script and Ray Liotta.
This is the story of Bridget (Linda Fiorentino), a tall (5'7"), slender, throaty voiced brunette who cheats her husband (Bill Pullman) out of some drug money and runs for it.
But this is a movie, it's entertainment, and the world is already full of bad-guys-get-it-in-the-end fantasies, orgies of violence that are only excused by the fact that the person being destroyed is a "bad guy" - why can't I relish in a fantasy of a brilliant and amoral woman triumphing over the stupid and trusting (and yes, people can really be that stupid, even smart people.) We want to believe in the essential goodness of mankind, but unfortunately, in the real world as in this movie, villains often capitalize on that need to believe for their own benefit.
Clay, of course, wants his money (he has to pay some people who do things with his thumbs when he doesn't have the money) and hires some detectives to find her.Linda Fiorentino is may be the best femme fatale I have seen in movies.
Okay, first thing I'd like to say is that having your protagonist smoke a lot, making shallow and obvious references to "Double Indemnity" and having a Femme Fatale does not instantly make a film a modern Noir.
Not by a long way.As it happens I've been watching a lot of classic and modern Noirs lately and this film really doesn't fit in with any of those.
It's not that Fiorentino's performance is bad (or that of any others in the film) it's just the whole story is so terrible and unbelievable the best acting performance in the world couldn't save it.Fortunatly for her character all the men she is surround with (aside from a lawyer she only phones) are so mind numbingly stupid, naive and gullible that she can still control them to her ends.
The Last Seduction is a darkly funny, cynically nasty, triumphant piece of cinema.What is most refreshing with the piece is that it gives the movie watching world a female character of rich devilment substance, the kind we rarely see in the modern age of cinema.
Here with Bridget Gregory we have not only a sexually aggressive femme fatale, but also a girl who is so wickedly intelligent it makes the men in her life seem like lobotomised amoeba's!
Backed up by the astute casting of Bill Pullman and Peter Berg as the differing hapless men in her life, the result is close to being TV movie gold.Technically the film obviously pings with a TV movie production value, but this is off set by the excellent photography from Jeff Jur, smoky bars captured in the truest feel of a noirish dream about to become a whole heap of trouble and strife.
The plot twists and turns like a worm trying to negotiate its way out of some noir labyrinth, with dashes of crackling dialogue helping to keep the journey a compulsory viewing, and then the end caps it off and you will not know if you should laugh or be shocked?
A strong minded woman(Linda Fiorentino)runs away with her husband's(Bill Pullman)profits from a drug deal leaving him to face his loan shark.
But nevertheless, I feel that it's a big miss that they didn't made the movie any more fun by for instance adding some more plot lines, with different characters, all trying to hunt down Bridget Gregory/Wendy Kroy, for whatever reason.Now instead there isn't always enough happening and developing in the movie.
It doesn't make the movie the most tense, exciting or even most original one out of its genre.The story on its own is quite good and interesting, in which a manipulative, beautiful, intelligent woman is trying to trick a man in killing her husband, of whom she has stolen close to a million dollar of him.
It's a real femme fatale.It really helps the movie that it has such as fine, strong, leading femme fatale, played by Linda Fiorentino, who definitely fits the role.
J.T. Walsh gets also extremely underused in a way too small role, that seemed like a fun one with more potential to it.This movie also seriously made me think about something.
"The Last Seduction" tells about the same type of person, only this time from her perspective.Excellent movie, for a small-budget film.
Linda Fiorentino's performance was lovely, nice to see a lady having such a great time.
This film has a good script and a very clever storyline and you can't help but like the scheming femme fatal..
And casting as not first class but talented Linda Fiorentino, Bill pullman, Peter berg is followed well by excellent directing..
Like all thrillers, there are some holes in the plot, but the atmosphere, black comedy and especially Linda Fiorentino's tour de force performance make this a standout neonoir film.
I know that this movie is about a femme fatale who preys on men using her sexuality and manipulation, so I don't expect her to be a good girl.
I could imagine a scene with Denis Farina as a cop putting a good scare in Fiorentino's character in the smoky bar.All that said, the movie is finely acted and finely done.
But this is Linda Fiorentino's film and she absolutely sizzles as the cold hearted, manipulative, scheming predatory bitch.
Linda Fiorentino does a remarkable job as the femme fatale stealing her husband's drug money.
But it's Peter Berg, who plays the young man falling in love with Fiorentino, and Linda Fiorentino who steals this movie.
It was alternately inconceivable someone could do that kind of thing to people, and hysterical (because it was a movie).The story, script, and editing are really excellent and the soundtrack gives this film a totally unique feeling.
The theme song is a kind of catchy, whimsical jazz which carries the "heroine's" sense of being able to do anything, but the irony is in the nature of the things she is doing.It's one of the only movies I've seen where I so badly want to see the protagonist come to good riddance the whole time, yet when the film finally ends I don't want them out of my sight..
The Last Seduction is one of the greatest movies of the 1990s because it pays homage to the great 'film noir's' of the 1940s and 50s with its use of a femme fatale but unlike recent remakes of the narrative outline such as 'Body Heat' 1981, 'The Last Seduction' shows the empowerment of the female that was first started in 'Double Indemnity'1944 but never completed until this movie came along.
Linda Fiorentino is absolutely brilliant in this film, I couldn't imagine any other actress doing such a great job.
Linda Fiorentino gives a sexy, one-of-a-kind performance in this intriguing thriller.
After a successful swindle, a ruthless and manipulative woman cheats both her husband and her new noodle boyfriend.Tough, blackly comic, extremely clever film noir thriller from a director particularly enthusiastic about the genre; graced by a tightly constructed script scintillating of demotic, quick-fire wit and surprises, plus Fiorentino's wonderfully bitchy performance..
She uses him to hide from Clay private detectives but it's only a matter of time before she's found and she begins to plan a way to use Mike's love to get out of trouble.It's rare that a film has a strong female lead and is successful  female roles are hard to come by.
In New York, the cunning and seductive telemarketing manager Bridget Gregory (Linda Fiorentino) convinces her husband, Dr. Clay Gregory (Bill Pullman), to sell a load of cocaine for medical use to drug dealers.
This movie is, together with "Body Heat" (1981) and the unknown "Payback" (1995), one of the three best film neo-noirs.
Linda Fiorentino is perfect in the role of the femme fatale that destroys the lives of three men – her husband, the private detective and the naive Mike.
I'd buy the look of self-satisfaction that Linda Fiorentino wears at the end of this movie if I didn't think the men she outsmarts weren't so incredibly stupid.
When you think one of the stupidos is Bill Pullman (who plays Fiorentino's husband), the movie falls apart in your head, and you feel like you're not in Kansas anymore.
THE LAST SEDUCTION (1994) ***1/2  Linda Fiorentino, Peter Berg, Bill Pullman, JT Walsh, Bill Nunn.
Superior film noir '90s style with conniving femme fatale Fiorentino trying to get away with a cache of stolen money and one too many men in her life.
Linda Fiorentino (is this seriously the same girl from Dogma?!) is phenomenal in the lead role, and Peter Berg more than pulls his weight too, though his character seems simple and flat at first it grows and develops throughout the film.
A pretty good erotic thriller with modern-day noir trappings.Linda Fiorentino sizzles as a classic femme fatale, who uses her sex appeal to get men to give her what she wants, which is usually money.
Bridget Gregory (Fiorentino) cons her husband out of a fortune and finds herself in a new job in Buffalo where things she learns are very different.When taking a trip down memory lane and looking at the great femme fatales Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction may pop up or Kim Basinger in L.A Confidential may flash by but has any actress ever stolen a film like Linda Fiorentino did in 1994?
She is the film, the main reason to watch and represents that on screen magic that makes you want evil to triumph over good, like Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs or the Joker in The Dark Knight.
Dahl's another stylish film-noir about a femme fatal (Bridget) who crapes the drug- money from his husband and run.
She manipulates her young lover, dominates her husband, "control" with her sardonic laugh and her long, sexy legs the situation, she is the ultimate, intelligent, evil bitch among with Barbara Stanwyck in "Double Indemnity" and Kathleen Turner in "Body Heat" (after this performance Turner looks like Snow White!).
And even if you don't feel like writing a thesis for your Women's Studies film class, you'll love this movie, because it's a stone brilliant black comedy.Our Bridget launches her nefarious scheme after her jerk husband, played by engaging creep Bill Pullman, slaps her and offers a half-hearted apology.
It seemed at times that the plot was a little unbelievable, but partly because characters quite obviously trying to get the better of each other by any means were actually talking to each other.Worth a watch whether the ending clear or not.
This is an outstanding movie, with an outstanding performance from Linda Fiorentino - who purrs menacingly and seductively throughout the film.
This is a modern film noir, lifted above the B-movie status suffered by some others in this genre by a top-notch cast (particularly Fiorentino).
All of the actors made great performances, from Linda Fiorentino to Peter Berg and Bill Pullman.
The powerful performance, of a sarcastic and erotic animal called Linda Fiorentino makes all the work, each second of the movie, belongs to her.
The love making scenes are very sensual, and some very sarcastic, the lines of Linda Fiorentino make she so desirable.The storyline, so smart and funny, The powerful Fiorentino´s perfomance, makes this film a classic noir film of all time.
The classic noir (Double Indemnity, The Big Sleep, Out of the Past) follows the male hero, usually solving a mystery or becoming entangled in one, at the center of which is a deadly woman: the beautiful femme fatale.Here, the plot unfolds from the perspective of the femme fatale, in a dark, fun, and sexy way, as she schemes against and manipulates her bad-guy husband and a naive, if not innocent, sap.
As the femme fatale, Linda Fiorentino is "all that" and more.And, like the classic noirs, this one has a lot to say about the blackness at the hearts of women and men.
Based on an original screenplay his film depicts how some men are fooled by a beautiful looking vicious woman who would go to any extent to earn money.Although the film begins in New York city there is much to learn about American culture once its action shifts to a small town.It is funny to watch how there are hardly any black people in that town.Moreover,the attitude of town's inhabitants is extremely partial when they see a black man in their midst.Domestic violence has come to be known as a global problem.This film is one of the few crime films which did not choose to ignore the depiction of domestic violence in order to distance itself from society's ills.Apart from actress Linda Florentino's performance as an outstanding "femme fatale",there are nice performances by Bill Pullman and Peter Berg as idiots who allow a beautiful looking lady crook to fool them..
"The Last Seduction" from 1994 is a modern noir that succeeds mostly due to the performance of Linda Fiorentino, who makes Kathleen Turner in Body Heat look like Zasu Pitts.Fiorentino plays Bridget Gregory, who steals a fortune in drug money from her husband (Bill Pullman) and goes on the run.
Having always had a weakness for the proverbial 'femme fatale', I thoroughly enjoyed Linda Fiorentino's portrayal of Bridget Gregory, who steals her husband's ill-gotten loot and skips town.
As I don't want to spoil the enjoyment for first-time viewers, I'd say, if you have a chance to watch this excellent film noir, prepare for some of the finest acting, and a happy ending for those who're most undeserving...
or at least,if i remember correctly it was.....this was an excellent film --noir and black comedy rolled into one---linda fiorentino should have won awards for her role as a ball buster invading small town america to make off with the money----i loved it !!.
I thought it was in many ways an excellent film, and yet one that I would not care to see again.As some others have pointed out, what makes this film unique is that it retells a fairly standard "film noir" story (think "Body Heat" or "Double Indemnity") from the POV of the femme fatale, the icily wicked, lethally beautiful and clever, and utterly ruthless Bridget Gregory.
In the end, the plot holds up OK; it is certainly far less predictable than by-the-numbers suspense films like "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" or "Single White Female"  It certainly holds your attention, with some genuinely shocking twists.Bridget is, in many ways, a fascinating character -- one who uses cool career-woman smarts, sexual wiles, and even the aura of woman-as-victim to get what she wants.
We watch her plot, but we have no idea why she is the way she is, or how she justifies her actions to herself (almost every human being needs to do that!).Linda Fiorentino is near-perfect as Bridget, conveying a great deal with little touches like her hilarious reaction to the rhubarb pie in her small-town lover's fridge.
It looks like the director could not decide whether he's making a thriller or a horror movie.Besides, the film doesn't answer to some important questions: 1) Could we actually live without the sense of moral and be human beings at the same time?
Linda Fiorentino plays her part as a scheming and seductive woman very well.
It is an excellent, pulsating, good looking and always moving neo-noir with a fantastic central performance from Linda Fiorentino.
And when Fiorentino's character (Bridget) burns a piece of evidence at the film's end, it certainly makes a case that the writers were not slack with the details.
There is absolutely no reason for Mike, the main male character that Wendy, the femme fatale, meets in a bar to love or even like Wendy, but we have to accept his behavior to accept the movie.
I wasn't expecting anything quite as riveting as this '96 film that reminds me of the sort of femme fatale story Hollywood loved to show us in the '40s (DOUBLE INDEMNITY, POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE) where a devious female takes charge of the plot.Must be the performance of LINDA FIORENTINO that made me sit up and watch the whole story with edge of the seat interest.