neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Femme Fatale
	Brian De Palma Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Antonio Banderas, Peter Coyote, Gregg Henry, Rie Rasmussen, Eriq Ebouaney 2002		Writer/director Brian De Palma's silly excuse for a thriller fails on so many levels Writer/director Brian De Palma's silly excuse for a thriller fails on so many levels that its few flashes of visual creativity seem like insults. "Femme Fatale" fixates on a duplicitous, carnally desirable "bad girl," who, it's suggested in a clip under the credits, is a modern reflection of Barbara Stanwyck in "Double Indemnity." They wish. De Palma's leading lady is vapid model Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, whose depiction of bisexual American thief Laure is a joke. Laure betrays her confederates after a heist-gone-bad at the Cannes Film Festival. She takes on the identity of a French woman who could be her twin (huh?), and escapes justice by flying home and marrying a billionaire (Peter Coyote). She's forced to return to France when her husband is made U.S. ambassador. A photographer, played lifelessly by Antonio Banderas, snaps her picture. Laure's former partners see it on a magazine cover and come gunning for her. But what proves fatal is an inane script, bad acting, forced Hitchcock references and a French accent from Romijn-Stamos that wouldn't fly at an Idaho high school production of "Irma la Douce."