Femme Fatale

This movie is intriguing only because Colin Firth is in it. It is one of his earlier films so he still has a baby fat face, but he also has that charming accent...so, not a total waste of time. He is the only reason I stuck it out.

Movie has thin plot that probably could have been a good, had the characters not been so superficial. Colin has all his usual passion, but seems out of place with the surrounding "ghosts" pretending to be actors. Really was let down by extent of the emptiness of the acting. The plot was too easy...first there are really bad men, then the bad men don't want to be bothered with the physicality's of killing someone. So they leave...what's with that? They are hit men without bullets, basically.

And I am so used to seeing Billy Zane as a really bad man that he seemed secondary if not less. Kinda spacey, and not really in the part of the film that he would have been best at, the supposed brutal sub-ending. I say sub-ending because the ending-ending was even more disappointing....turned into some warped fairy tale.

All in all, waste of time and space. Sorry Colin.

As I sat in front of the TV watching this movie, I thought, "Oh, what Alfred Hitchcock, or even Brian DePalma, could have done with this!" Chances are, you will too. It does start out intrigueing. A British park ranger living in Los Angeles (Collin Firth) marries a pretty, demure brunette woman (Lisa Zane) whom he met in a park only a short time ago. Then, one day she dissappears. The police are unable to find any documentation that she ever existed, and Firth conducts his own search. So far, so good. Just as he's about to give up, he turns to his womanizing best friend (Billy Zane), and they stumble onto her former life in L.A.'s sordid underground of drugs, nightclubs, and ametuer filmmaking, and then to her history of mental instability. At that point, Firth's life is in danger, and the film falls apart. None of the characters from Lisa Zane's past are remotely interesting. The film moves slowly, and there's very little action. There is a subplot regarding missing drug money, but it's just a throwaway. No chases, no cliffhanging sequences, and no suspense. Just some dull beatings and a lot of chat by boring characters. One thing worth noting, Lisa Zane and Billy Zane are brother and sister, but they never appear in a scene together. By the end of the movie, you're torn between wondering what might have been and trying to stay awake.

I accidentally stumbled upon this 'movie' while zapping over my 60 dutch channels. Well, because it was very late and there wasn't anything else on, I continued to watch this low-budget picture. I like to torture myself from time to time. Colin Firth is a dumb newlywed whose bride runs away on their honeymoon. So, guess what, he starts to look for her. But his wife is a loony. Lisa Zane doesn't play her character with any mystery. You only get irritated by her. Oh yes, her brother Billy plays Firth's best friend and what an acting achievement that was. I urge you to go to dentist rather than to see this movie. Lisa Zane can't save it with her looks alone.

(1991) Femme Fatale MYSTERY THRILLER

A park ranger Joseph Prince (Colin Firth) wakes up and finds that his newly married wife, Cynthia (Lisa Zane) has left just left him leaving him with nothing more than small note. To relieve his sorrows he then seeks comfort by moving and then staying with his long time friend, Elijah (Billy Zane) and we find out that they are both painters and artists for a long time, and that Joseph's wife went up and left him after 3 days of marriage. It is during then he finds more things about his wife he knew nothing about like he thought he was married to a Cynthia Baker but her actual name is Mara Sade.

I am trying to watch all of Colin Firth's filmography. This is the first dud so far. Generally his films are intelligent, engaging and interesting. He almost always plays the same lovable character but with an amazing depth of feeling and nuance. This film was one of his earliest productions. Clearly it is an outlier. One of the truly worthless films of all time. Not because of the acting but because of the implausible and absurd plot with an equally inane script. It should be classified as a horror film. Every other actor in the film is a complete unknown. And the setting, in a Los Angeles slum, adds to the depressing ambiance. The topless model posing with a bag over her head is a clue to the pathetic, degraded tenor of this work.