"The Last Seduction" from 1994 is a modern noir that succeeds mostly due to the performance of Linda Fiorentino, who makes Kathleen Turner in Body Heat look like Zasu Pitts.
Fiorentino plays Bridget Gregory, who steals a fortune in drug money from her husband (Bill Pullman) and goes on the run. She ends up in a small town, Beston, while getting gas for her car, and meets Mike (Peter Berg), a frustrated man who wants to leave Beston. He did live in Buffalo, but all he will say is that it didn't work out. He wears a wedding ring that he can't get off, though he's no longer married. He and Bridget become sex partners, though he wants a more meaningful relationship. However, she won't give him any information about herself.
Bridget then gets a job at an insurance company and convinces the bosses to let her work under another name because her vicious husband is after her. She hatches a murder for hire scheme using insurance company records, targeting philandering men who have credit cards in the names of women other than their wives along with love nests, where she convinces the wives their husbands are better off dead. Mike is horrified and wants no part of it. He will have to be persuaded. Somehow.
Some elegant twists in this noir, along with a dark, steamy atmosphere. Fiorentino is one of those unfortunate cases of stardom eluded, probably due to choosing parts and films that interested her rather than films that had commercial value. Many films she's made have not been able to get distribution.
She is gangbusters as Bridget - beautiful, sexy, ruthless, possibly one of the most ruthless women ever in films. She liked the role because the character had no conscience and no vulnerability. It's a performance deserving of all the awards she was either nominated for or received, but Golden Globe and Oscar attention would have been nice.
Good movie, highly recommended.
