Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I cannot understand people who bash this movie. They say "the men acted stupid". Well, you could write a movie where she flies to South America and completely disappears, but where's the movie in that? She has to give just enough clues that you think she is going to be caught, and then she wriggles out. That's why we go to movies, to see people escape imminent danger. This movie perfectly balances the tension with humor. It makes perfect sense Peter Berg falls in love with Wendy - he's bored in his little town and knows all the other girls. Very satisfying that a movie let's the bad guy get away with things for once, rather than the old Production Code rules that forced crime to be always punished at the end,

Everything about "The Last Seduction" is totally outrageous; its characters, its plot and most of all its femme fatale who scales previously unchartered levels of wickedness and cruelty in order to satisfy her lust for money and her desire to eliminate her husband. Realism and suspense are the main casualties as this cleverly plotted thriller entertains by being provocative, humorous and nicely twisted. As a 1994 neo-noir, it's stylish, well-written and in contrast to its 1940s and 1950s predecessors, is also able to end in a way that wouldn't have been possible in the days of the Hollywood Production Code.After completing a drug deal with a couple of very threatening gangsters, Clay Gregory (Bill Pullman) returns to his New York apartment with his nerves in shreds and $700,000 stuffed inside his shirt. With enough cash to pay off his huge gambling debts and buy a smart penthouse apartment, he's starting to feel relieved until his sharp-tongued wife, Bridget (Linda Fiorentino) calls him an idiot and he responds by slapping her across the face. When he then decides to take a shower, Bridget promptly bags all the money, leaves the apartment at great speed and doesn't stop until she gets to a small town called Beston (near Buffalo). There, in a small bar, she gets picked up by a local young man called Mike Swale (Peter Berg) and they launch into an affair in which she's the dominant partner and uses Mike purely as a "sex object".Bridget, (now calling herself Wendy Kroy), takes a job at the Beston insurance company where Mike also works as a claims adjuster and ignores him when he says that he wants a relationship that's more than purely physical. Her main preoccupation is to devise a way of keeping all the money she's stolen and making sure that her husband isn't able to claim any of it. Clay is desperate because he's being "leaned on" heavily by the loan sharks who want him to repay his debts and so he hires a private investigator called Harlan (Bill Nunn) who traces Bridget and makes an attempt to recover the money. The way in which Bridget deals with the threat that Harlan poses turns out to be amusing, unorthodox and ultimately, very effective.Through his work, Mike is aware of a method of recognising cheating husbands by checking out their credit card arrangements and when he tells Bridget the details, she soon gets to work on a plan to use this method to set Mike up to kill Clay. Inevitably though, numerous problems then arise as the not-very-bright Mike attempts to complete his mission.One of the best features of this movie is its dialogue which is often sharp and witty with Bridget's conversations with her lawyer Frank Griffith (J.T. Walsh) providing some particularly entertaining exchanges. At one point he asks "Anybody checked you for a heartbeat lately?" and on another, when she asks "Are you still a lawyer?" he replies "Are you still a self-serving bitch?" Linda Fiorentino's character in the movie has all the typical femme fatale qualities, such as being manipulative, treacherous and deadly but is also incredibly ill-mannered, coarse and amoral as she ruthlessly deals with every man who gets in her way. Fiorentino does a great job of displaying all the swagger, attitude and coldness that makes Bridget Gregory so odious and memorable and Bill Pullman and Bill Nunn also do well in their supporting roles.

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.

Certainly, one can see the influence for Gone Girl in these sort of films. Linda Florentino even reminds me a lot of Rosamund Pike, in her mannerisms, her vocal clippings and style, and her sultry demeanor. The film is quite good, although not a masterpiece and not the film Gone Girl is. It has a certain appealing quality that really makes it stand apart, but I do wish the neo-noir style had gone further. As it is, it feels like it didn't utilize its complete potential, certainly not to the extent many of us would've wanted to (certainly me though). It's a good film though, unburdened by trying to pander to audiences and still finding a good way to be seductive and sexy. It's definitely recommended, for all its faults.