I love this movie so much

Load of rubbish!!

Fantastic!

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

FEMME FATALE is another example of how Brian De Palma's star has waned over the years. Give me the director circa 1980 and the likes of DRESSED TO KILL and BLOW OUT and he could do no wrong; but as with many of the young directors of the 1970s, he seems to be unable to make a good film these days. FEMME FATALE, written and directed by De Palma, is a case in point. It's a confusing, convoluted thriller, badly over-directed by the once great; the opening robbery sequence should be amazing, featuring orchestral music, shocking scenes of violence and sexuality, and hard-working cinematography. Instead it feels overblown and silly, and it's hard not to burst into laughter at the earnestness of it all.Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, best known as the blue-skinned mutant in X-MEN, is a poor choice for the lead role; she just doesn't have the acting chops for the job. Antonio Banderas is better, but underutilised and acting with tongue in cheek for the most part (and who can blame him?). The film seems to go on forever and deals one unconvincing plot twist after another, and in the end it just went over me rather than involving me.

As an example of how to convey information with a minimum of dialogue, this movie is absolutely outstanding. Its plot unfolds so naturally and gracefully across the screen that, as well as telling its tale with great efficiency, it also creates a wonderfully hypnotic atmosphere. Its story about a well-planned diamond heist involves double-crosses, blackmail and revenge as well as some reflections on the level to which individuals are able to control their own destinies and interestingly, it also includes a number of Hitchcockian influences such as voyeurism, doubles, confused identities and the disguise motif.Stylistically, the emphasis is on presenting the action with the kind of deliberate pace and fluid camera-work that together contribute so strongly to the dreamlike mood of the piece. This, in turn, makes some of the plot's stranger coincidences, apparently illogical developments and moments of deja vu seem far less incongruous than would have been the case, if they'd have been seen in a more conventionally-filmed movie.During the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, Laure Ash (Rebecca Romjin-Stamos) has a key role to play in a heist that's been planned by her gang-leader, Black Tie (Eriq Ebouaney) and posing as a press photographer at one of the premieres, sees a model called Veronica (Rie Rasmussen) who attracts a lot of attention because of the very revealing gold, serpent-shaped, diamond-encrusted piece of body jewellery that she's wearing. When Laure and Veronica meet in the ladies' room immediately before the movie's due to be screened, Laure is seen apparently seducing the model and during their encounter, removes the various pieces of Veronica's body-jewellery and drops them to the floor. Black Tie, who's hidden in the adjacent cubicle, then systematically swaps each piece for a fake replica in readiness for making off with the loot which is valued at $10,000,000. Things don't go so smoothly from this point on and culminate in Laure double-crossing her partners-in-crime and escaping to Paris with the stolen jewellery.In Paris, Laure is mistaken for a missing woman called Lily, who looks identical to her and so, after stealing her double's passport and plane ticket to New York, Laure takes the opportunity to escape to a new life in America. During the flight, she meets a wealthy businessman who she subsequently marries. Seven years later, when her husband, Bruce Hewitt Watts (Peter Coyote) is appointed as the American ambassador to France, Laure reluctantly has to return to Paris (coincidentally at the same time as Black Tie is released from prison). After a period during which she's able to keep a low profile, her cover is suddenly blown after freelance photographer, Nicholas Bardo (Antonio Banderas) takes a photograph of her which then appears in numerous publications and puts her life in danger because her fellow gang-members are out for revenge.The surreal series of events that follow illustrate further just how evil and manipulative Laure is and produce a dizzying succession of twists and turns that lead to the movie's entertaining and highly unpredictable conclusion. Intriguingly, during this part of the movie, it also becomes apparent that a number of things that had happened earlier, were not actually what they'd appeared to be.Brian De Palma's "Femme Fatale" is an immensely absorbing mystery thriller that features a woman whose characteristics are typical of the noir archetype and readily admits that she's "a bad girl, real bad - rotten to the heart". Rebecca Romjin-Stamos hits all the right notes as both Laure and Lily and Antonio Banderas is charming and humorous as her victim. The real star of the show, however, is the camera. The ways in which split-screen techniques, tracking shots and overhead camera angles cover the action are totally breathtaking and clearly the work of a filmmaker who fully understands and is inspired by, all the possibilities of cinema as a visual medium.

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.

If you enjoy watching Brian De Palma move the camera around, this is the film for you because De Palma does everything here but shove the camera up his butt and give himself a colonoscopy. For the rest of us, actually watching a colonoscopy would be more entertaining and rewarding than sitting through Femme Fatale.Before I get to the plot, I first have to say that Rebecca Romijn probably sets a new standard here in the category of "Models who embarrass themselves by trying to act". Now, I know what you're thinking. "How could she possible be worse than Cindy Crawford in Fair Game?" It does seem both physically and metaphysically impossible for any model to be a more pathetic thespian than Crawford trying to pass herself off as an attorney. Well somehow, possibly with the aid of the Devil or some lesser demonic entity, Romijn manages to suck even more. There's not an ounce of conviction in anything she says, her range of expression goes all the way from heavily medicated to lightly sedated and she moves like a poorly operated animatronic figure. Romijn is trying to portray a con-woman in this movie, but she's not even believable as a human being.In fairness, Romijn might not have been THIS awesomely terrible without her director apparently doing everything he could to magnify and exaggerate her weaknesses. In the first 40 minutes of Femme Fatale, Romijn is on screen almost the entire time but has less than 40 seconds of dialog. That means she's asked to carry off her role solely on the strength of her ability to emote. Unfortunately, Romijn radiates emotion like a frozen corpse in a Siberian blizzard. It is honestly uncomfortable to see her fail so miserably at conveying the simplest and most elemental of feelings. Then when Romijn does get to talk, De Palma saddles her with a French accent, which is a little like asking the world's worst cook to make a soufflé.As for the plot, Romijn plays a beautiful enigma who betrays her partners in a jewel theft and manages to run into a woman who looks exactly like her, so she steals the other woman's identity to hide from her vengeful former comrades. As her doppelganger, Romijn's character meets a U.S. diplomat (Peter Coyote) and marries him. 7 years later, a handsome non-entity (Antonio Banderas) manages to take a photo of Romijn's character, which launches her into a ludicrously convoluted scheme to extort money from her husband and disappear before her betrayed buddies can track her down and kill her. I really can't go any further into the plot without spraining my brain. This isn't one of those stories where things don't make sense. This is one of those stories where it is impossible for things to make sense. There are holes in this plot that even De Palma himself couldn't explain away if I stuck his genitals in a garbage disposal and threatened to flip the switch.Oh, and that whole "running into someone who looks exactly like you at the precise moment you need to hide your true identity" thing? Sounds pretty convenient, doesn't it? Well, there's a twist at the end of this film that's a billion times more absurd than that. I'd tell you what it is, except then I'd feel compelled to go on for at least another 5,000 words about how bizarrely, insultingly ridiculous it is and life is too short for that.Femme Fatale is a f***ing fiasco.