Last Seduction

Year: 1994

Grade: B+

Country: USA

Director: Dahl

Review

john dahl is a sleeper director. his biggest film is joy ride which is a well done and entertaining picture, but not really indicative of his better work. rounders also sort of slipped under the radar. and his two best pictures (red rock west and last seduction) are virtually unknown despite having noteworthy actors and being damn good films. like red rock west, the last seduction is a neo-noir, or post-noir, or modern noir, or whatever you want to call it. it’s a 90s color film that borrows heavily from noir conventions, we’ll put it that way. fiorentino plays the femme fatale and, like in depalma’s “femme fatale,” the film revolves around her more than it does the patsy (ably played by bill paxton, er bill pullman). she does a great job in selling the character which is important because the ending is a bit of a hard sell and requires the audience to believe she is capable of what she does. dahl’s greatest strength is his storytelling. his pacing is right where it needs to be in each picture, he unfolds each character in an even and natural way, the mystery is never too easy to unravel, but at the same time it’s still believable. he doesn’t generally write his own stuff, but his films are always well-written. they always have a natural unfolding about them, there aren’t any lulls in his films, the mysterious aspects of the film are never too far in the distance, yet at the same time he is able to develop his characters and entertain the audience. this is the art of storytelling – balancing the different elements in an enjoyable, reasonable and naturalistic way; and this is what john dahl does so well in this picture. icing on the cake is the play on the film noir conventions, the well-matched soundtrack, the performances and the comic relief.