The Last Seduction (1994)

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.

Director:

John Dahl

Writer:

Steve Barancik

Stars:

Linda Fiorentino, Peter Berg, Bill Pullman

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 9 wins & 9 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Linda Fiorentino	...	Bridget Gregory
Bill Pullman	...	Clay Gregory
Michael Raysses	...	Phone Sales Rep.
Zack Phifer	...	Gas Station Attendant
Peter Berg	...	Mike Swale
Brien Varady	...	Chris
Dean Norris	...	Shep
Donna W. Scott	...	Stacy (as Donna Wilson)
Mik Scriba	...	Ray
J.T. Walsh	...	Frank Griffith
Erik-Anders Nilsson	...	Beston Passerby #1
Patricia R. Caprio	...	Beston Passerby #2
Herb Mitchell	...	Bob Trotter
Bill Nunn	...	Harlan
Renee Rogers	...	Receptionist

Storyline

Bridget Gregory has a lot going for her: she's beautiful, she's intelligent, she's married to a doctor. But all of this isn't enough, as her husband Clay finds out. After she persuaded him to sell medicinal cocaine to some drugdealers, she takes off with the money, almost a million dollars, and goes undercover in a mid-American smalltown. Because Clay has to pay off a loan shark who'll otherwise damage him severely, he keeps sending detectives after her, trying to retrieve the money. When Bridget meets Mike Swale, a naive local who is blinded by her beauty and directness, she devises an elaborate, almost diabolical scheme to get rid of Clay once and for all.

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Plot Keywords:

man slaps woman | sole black character dies cliche | framed for murder | false police report | shady doctor | 

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Taglines:

She wants it all...

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Romance | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong sexuality and language, and for violence

Details

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 October 1994 (USA)

Also Known As:

Buffalo Girls

Filming Locations:

Irvington, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$2,500,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$6,138,485

Company Credits

Production Co:

Incorporated Television Company (ITC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min 129 min (extended)

Sound Mix:

Ultra Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Linda Fiorentino was widely lauded by critics for her performance in this movie but was denied an Academy Award nomination because it came out on TV before a theatrical release.

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Goofs

The ruffled look of Bridget's hair throughout her love scene with Mike is inconsistent.

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Quotes

Bridget Gregory: You're my designated fuck.
Mike Swale: Designated fuck? Do they make cards for that? What if I want to be more than your designated fuck?
Bridget Gregory: Then I'll designate someone else.

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Connections

Featured in Siskel & Ebert: The Best Films of 1994 (1994)

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Soundtracks

Soft Touch
Written by Greg Wright
Performed by Joseph Kubek
Courtesy of Rounder Records

User Reviews

Linda Fiorentino is a real star

Director John Dahl's stylish film noir `Red Rock West' couldn't find a distributor, played on cable television and then was picked up by a San Francisco moviehouse where it set attendance records. If you think its subsequent success taught Hollywood suits anything, you just aren't cut out for the movie business.

With an even better script by Steve Barancik, Dahl found the ideal lead to play the very fatale femme of `The Last Seduction.' Linda Fiorentino, someone else who hasn't been well served by Hollywood, gave one of the great performances of the 1990s as Bridget/Wendy. Her no-holds-barred potrayal perfectly matched Barancik's uncompromising writing. Fiorentino deserved an Oscar, but didn't qualify because this film also went straight to cable before finding a distributor and becoming a hit.

Limited resources can focus the mind. Dahl isn't the most sweepingly visual of directors, but he can provide the occasional arresting scene. With a small but outstanding cast of what were then B-list actors, everyday settings and a tiny budget, the director kept `The Last Seduction' focused on the basics needed to make this genre work.

Without revealing too much of the plot, Bridget is on the lam after stealing $700,000 in drug proceeds from her sleazy, abusive husband, well played by Bill Pullman just before he became a good-guy leading man. The late great J.T. Walsh is smooth as a silk suit as Bridget's attorney, who appreciates a cold-hearted bitch. Bill Nunn does yeoman work as the detective on her trail.

But the key to this sort of black widow movie is a willing sap, and Peter Berg makes one of the best. A lean slice of beecake, he's back in his small town after a disastrous fling in the big city, that is, Buffalo. He's looking to get out again, and when Bridget breezes into the local shot-and-beer joint with her `city trash' attitude, he's done for.

As another reviewer chooses to emphasize, with her skinny legs and barely pubescent, pancake-flat chest Linda Fiorentino is the scrawniest femme fatale in the history of film noir. But that just makes her and her character's progress more amusing. Like Bridget, Fiorentino gets over on attitude more than pulchritude.

While Fiorentino's physique won't make women viewers jealous, many respond enthusiastically to the sex scene where Bridget rides Berg's Mike against a fence behind the bar. In fact, there's hardly a standard bedroom scene: most of the sex is of the right-now kind. And while both seem to enjoy themselves a lot, Bridget is clearly in control, emotionally and physically.

In recent years, we've gotten used to zaftig super-women like Xena throwing men around. But perhaps not since the heyday of Diana Rigg on `The Avengers' has there been a thin, flat-chested woman who dominates males like Linda Fiorentino takes care of business here. Bridget certainly isn't a role model, but her enthusiasm for her work is infectious.

This movie also has the courage of its convictions. If it seems amoral, well just about every Arnold Schwartzenegger movie celebrates massive killing by so-called `good guys.' The only difference between this movie and Hollywood's standard murderous agit-prop is that `The Last Seduction' has a brain.

Unfortunately, great work doesn't always bring great rewards. Fiorentino was good in Kevin Smith's ramshackle low-budget `Dogma,' only to be dissed by the director. She was one of the best elements of the equally ramshackle but costly `Men in Black,' only to be booted from the sequel for more compliant girls. (In Hollywood's homoerotic subtext, `buddy movie' means no women allowed.)

Fiorentino did hook up aagin with John Dahl in the highly forgettable `Unforgettable,' weighed down by a bigger budget, second-rate script and Ray Liotta. Both the director and his leading lady are still in play, though, so we can hope they will find other siutations worthy of their talents. And if not, Linda Fiorentino makes `The Last Seduction' unforgettable.