The Last Seduction

Bridget Gregory (Linda Fiorentino) is a telemarketing manager running a croaked boiler room. Her husband Clay Gregory (Bill Pullman) sells stolen pharmaceuticals for a big payday. She steals his money and leaves NYC. She stops at Beston on her way to Chicago. Mike Swale (Peter Berg) is tired of small town girls. She walks into the bar and he's smitten. Her lawyer Frank Griffith (J.T. Walsh) tells her to stay put while he starts the divorce. She gets a job as Wendy Kroy but Mike happens to work at the company. Clay is desperate to pay off a loan shark and manages to track her to an area code. Then he figures out that New York backwards is Wen Kroy and sends Harlan (Bill Nunn) to find Wendy.

The bar scene is terrific and it's all about Linda Fiorentino. That goes for the whole movie. Her character is a real piece. Peter Berg is a good sucker and Bill Pullman is a good sleaze. It's surprisingly funny at times. It's all attitude and Fiorentino is dripping in it. Her dialog is neo-noir and snappy. I love the dark turns and her glee with making those turns.

Fiorentino has a field day as one of the most despicable women ever to be featured in a film. 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. The plot is quite contrived and the characters bear no resemblance to real people, with Fiorentino appearing to be a genius in a world of dim-witted men. The acting is pretty good. Berg is likable as Fiorentino's boyfriend, a decent fellow who has to balance his hormones with his morality. Pullman seems to be having fun playing the betrayed spouse. The score sets the right mood.

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. She heads to "cow country" where she hooks up with nice guy Mike (Peter Berg) and makes him her designated [BLEEP]. But when her husband comes knocking on her door intending to take back his money (and sends a series of guys after her) Bridget gets ready to kill him and set Mike up for the fall.

Had this been properly released in theaters, it could very well have put Fiorentino on the map, maybe even gotten her an Oscar for best actress in the role of the femme fatale. I wasn't exactly rooting for her, but she sure was compelling to watch and very sexy.

And speaking of sexy, the film features some very powerful sex scenes that put just about everything we've ever seen in the James Bond films to shame. Oh what a Bond girl Linda Fiorentino would have made, and after seeing her stripped naked here, you'll agree.

A devious sexpot steals her husband's drug money and hides out in a small town where she meets the perfect dupe for her next scheme.

The rumor is that this film was intended to be a "skin flick" but the people involved wanted to make something a little bit better. What they ended up with was a thriller not unlike "Basic Instinct" and "Fatal Attraction". In a world full of stupid men, a crafty woman can control her destiny.

How well this film is known, I do not know. I wasn't aware of it. But enough people have rated it on IMDb that it must have been big at the time. Heck, there are rumors that it almost got an Oscar nomination. (Lots of "rumors" with this film... not sure what to believe.)

Clay Gregory borrows some money to buy drugs and sell them on at profit. However his wife steals the profit and flees – leaving him with the loan shark to pay off. Bridget ends up in a small town where she hooks up with Mike Swale (her designated f***). 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. Here this film is based around the ultimate femme fatale (or b***h as she's called here) and the story is clever and sexy. Bridget appears to be cold and manipulative – and every frame of the film confirms that. The story is clever and twisty – very enjoyable, right up to the end where you can't help but feel sorry for anyone that tries to stop her getting her way.

Fiorento is excellent and has yet to get as good a role since. She is sexy and manipulative and totally believable. Berg is good as the backwater boy who gets taken for a ride. Bill Pullman is good in a smaller role (he only once is seen outside of his apartment). While Bill Nunn and J.T. Walsh (when will I stop feeling his loss?) add class in roles that almost count as cameos they are so small.

Dark, wicked, sexy and intelligently twisty. Modern noir at it's best….but did we really need a sequel?