‘She must have worked up one hell of a morality play for you…’
Sometimes there is no rhyme nor reason as to why one actor hits and one actor falls by the wayside. Linda Fiorentino has had a fine career, but to watch her whirlwind performance in The Last Seduction, it’s impossible to see why she didn’t go on to become a massive star. She deserved an Oscar nomination. She deserved universal acclaim. In the end, this film has become a mere footnote in cinematic history…
Bridget Gregory (Fiorentino) has had enough of taking shit. One day, she leaves her no good husband, Clay (Bill Pullman), and takes the $700,000 he earned selling pharmaceutical cocaine with her in the process. On her way from New York City to Chicago, Bridget stops in the small town of Beston, near Buffalo, where she meets and sleeps with local man, Mike Swale (Peter Berg). The two begin a whirlwind romance with Bridget keeping Mike dancing on strings the entire time. It’s a joy to behold.
While erotic thrillers were ten-a-penny in the mid-90s, this one has more in common with the noir films of the ’40s and ’50s. Think L.A. Confidential, not Basic Instinct. Joseph Vitarelli’s jazz score is initially jarring but I grew to love it by the end, but it is Fiorentino’s fierce and spellbinding performance that elevates The Last Seduction above many of its peers. Pullman and Berg make for fine supports, but all eyes are on Fiorentino every time she appears on screen. It’s also very enjoyable that much of the first half of the film takes place in gorgeous looking dive bars – what a time to be alive.
The Last Seduction is the kind of grown up thriller that they don’t really make anymore. It’s also one of the more underrated films from this era – top stuff.
