Clay Gregory (Bill Pullman) and his wife Bridget (Linda Fiorentino). Are not nice people. Bridget is some kind of sales manager. She’s a hard-driving über-bitch. Clay is creep and maybe a bit of a loser although he’s the kind of loser who thinks he’s a winner. He’s just pulled off a huge coke deal. Now Clay and Bridget can live the lifestyle they think they deserve. And Clay can pay off that loan shark (like I said he’s a bit of a loser).
Only Bridget decides she wants the whole seven hundred grand for herself and she takes off with it.
She’s heading for Chicago. She ends up stopping off in some podunk cow town named Benton where everybody listens to country music. Bridget is a New York City girl. She hates this place, but after talking to her lawyer she realises that it might be a good idea to stay for a while. Clay will expect her to go to Chicago. In Chicago he’ll find her.
Bridget is not a complete fool. Counting on Clay being as dumb as she thinks he is mighty be risky. Clay isn’t likely to be dangerous but if he finds her he could make things difficult regarding that money. Perhaps it also crosses her mind that after what she did to him he might be in a nasty mood.
Bridget will have to find something to keep herself entertained. Having sex entertains her. She picks up an innocent small town boy in a bar and has sex with him. His name is Mike (Peter Berg). But then the dumb schmuck gets all starry-eyed and romantic. He wants a relationship. Bridget doesn’t want any relationship that lasts longer than the time required to have sex.
Bridget is happy to keep having sex with Mike but she certainly doesn’t want love or companionship or friendship or respect or a meeting of minds. She just wants what he has in his pants. She can’t figure out why he gets all mopey. Can’t he just be satisfied with uncomplicated albeit sleazy and dirty sex?
Bridget has no interest in Mike (apart from sex) until she discovers he has a way of finding out interesting things about people. She suggests a way they could put that skill to amusing and profitable use. Mike is shocked.
Mike is about to be drawn into a game by Bridget, but he doesn’t know it yet.
What Bridget likes most about Mike is that he’s dumb. Not totally stupid, but pretty dumb. Certainly dumb enough that she would have no problem getting him to do anything she wanted. At the moment she can’t think of a use for him but you never know when a girl is going to need a dumb easily manipulated man.
Peter Berg is quite good. He certainly manages to convince us that Mike is not a smart guy. If there’s a minor weakness to this movie it’s the fact that Mike is so slow on the uptake and so innocent that we despise him. We still feel almost sorry for him, but it’s tinged with pity.
Bill Pullman is fine.
But this is Linda Fiorentino’s movie. She’s a femme fatale on steroids. She’s a vicious selfish bitch. She’s perpetually horny. She’s sexy and her sexual appetite is equalled only by her lust for money. She uses everyone with whom she comes in contact. She’s a bad bad girl. She’s wonderful. All the world loves a bad girl.
What makes this movie work is that Bridget is so uncompromising in her rejection of all of the accepted moral and social codes. She has no pity for others but she also has no self-pity. I also love the fact that we are offered no explanations for her personality. There are no cringe-inducing scenes in therapists’ offices. No tedious flashbacks to childhood trauma. Bridget is just a bitch. I can respect that.
Bridget reminds me just a little of Parker, in Donald E. Westlake’s Parker novels. She might be one of the greatest villainesses of all time but there’s a bit of the anti-heroine in her. We admire her audacity and her ruthlessness so much that we want her to get away with it. She’s bad but she takes life by the throat and doesn’t let go.
This is certainly an erotic thriller but it’s also very much a neo-noir. It’s a neo-noir in the Body Heat mould. It’s much more neo-noir than erotic thriller. It ticks most of the noir boxes.
It’s surprising that screenwriter Steve Barancik only had a tiny handful of film credits. His screenplay is fine, with some nice little twists at the end. Also surprising is the fact that director John Dahl has so few feature film credits.
The Last Seduction is a top-class neo-noir with a stunning performance by Linda Fiorentino. Very highly recommended.
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