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 ou could take Brian De Palma's "Femme Fatale" as
a serious piece of moviemaking if you like, but what's the point? The
writer/director himself doesn't seem to really care all that much about plot and
story, or why A leads to B which ends with C, etc. De Palma ("Mission
Impossible") is most interested in the exercise of moviemaking style, of
technique and devices, and the rest are purely incidental.
"Femme Fatale" opens with Laure (Rebecca
Romijn-Stamos) participating in a poorly planned heist of some fancy jewelry
(although they don't look like it) that is currently being (literally) worn by a
supermodel. The supermodel is showing the jewelry (supposedly costing millions)
during the Cannes Film Festival in France, and it's Laure's job to seduce the
supermodel in a bathroom while her cohorts exchange the real jewelry with fake
ones. Despite a lot of problems (this is a very poorly planned robbery!),
the plan succeeds (just barely), and Laure walks out of the festival with the
loot, leaving the leader of the thieves in hot water (and shot). The leader goes
to prison while Laure tries to find a way out of France. She succeeds, only to
have a twist of fate bring her back to France, and back to a world of trouble.
The truth is, I don't know why I bothered giving you the
above encapsulation of the movie (sarcastic parentheticals notwithstanding).
"Femme Fatale" is so uninterested in storytelling that it's rather
silly to bother talking about the merits of its story, plot, or characters.
American filmmaker (and now expatriate?) De Palma shoots "Femme
Fatale" as if he was still working in the late '70s or early '80s, two
periods marked by commercial successes with films that "made" De
Palma. The director hasn't had a lot of quality success since those periods, so
maybe that's why "Femme Fatale" looks "older" than it is.
("The Untouchables", I believe, was his last critical success.)
There are two ways to approach "Femme Fatale" --
as if you're watching a filmmaker trying to rediscover the love of the art form,
or as a straight movie. Watching "Femme Fatale" and its female lead,
supermodel-turned-actress Rebecca Romijn-Stamos ("X-men"),
try to struggle through her dialogue and her "character" is a mistake.
The only real talent Romijn-Stamos is required to show here is a lot of skin and
the body to make the skin look good. She has both in spades, by the way.
The acting by all involve is actually quite poor, but
that's not really irrelevant considering De Palma barely bothers to make the
movie credible to begin with. The story is muddled and covered from end to end
in contrivances; things don't make sense, plot points are so wholeheartedly
unconvincing that the phrase "suspension of disbelief" gets trashed
completely. There are, of course, twists galore, but the majority of them exist
just so they can exist. There's no rhyme or reason for them, because it's
all about devices, not storytelling.
The real star of "Femme Fatale" is De Palma's
insistence that you concentrate on his skills as a technician. The movie moves
at a fluid pace, with the opening heist taking up nearly 20 minutes, and Laure's
flight from France taking up another 20 or so. By the time the film kicks back
into its main plot (and I use the term loosely), we're past the halfway mark.
The rest of the movie is better left unsaid.
Taken as a platform for De Palma to showcase some pizzazz
and style, "Femme Fatale" is a heck of a lot of fun to watch. Whole
sequences get repeated; whole locations get reused; and whole characters
re-appear. For instance, although the movie purports to skip 7 years, no one
in the film seems to have aged a single day. It all fits into De Palma's plan,
which is to showcase the magic of filmmaking, where anything and everything is
possible. Film is not the real world, De Palma seems to be pointing out; none of
this nonsense would be possible in the real world, not by a longshot.
I won't go so far as to say that "Femme Fatale"
is some great achievement. Its technical craftsmanship is oftentimes clever, and
its ability to be completely devoid of substance or narrative cohesion is
laudable. Lead Rebecca Romijn-Stamos is sexy as hell regardless of hair color or
state of dress (or is often the case, undress). Beyond those points, there
really is nothing about "Femme Fatale" that would make it required
viewing for Joe Q. Public. This movie is for filmmakers, or aficionados of the
art form. No one else need apply.
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