The Last Seduction is a good example of how one could ruin a movie with an otherwise decent plot. The film has been made with a tiny budget, but this has nothing to do with its flaws. The actors have not been among Hollywood's favorites, yet acting is not the movie's problem. Then, if the plot is OK, the acting is good and maybe even the dialogue is enjoyable, what might The Last Seduction's faults be? Well, the answer is pretty simple. Look at the details!
So, while you are watching this movie you'll notice a few good things I am going to list at the end and a lot of not so good details. In fact, tons of unbelievable details. The lack of any realism in The Last Seduction starts almost from its beginning and does not disappear until the end of the film. Even a more annoying issue is that all these unrealistic events are let's say "unforced errors" that could be easily avoided without altering the main plot in any way. And although many people love to excuse such "errors" with "Well, it's a movie, it doesn't have to be realistic.", in my rating system non-fantasy and non sci-fi films that are less believable than Star Wars or Avatar, get usually a lower grade than the one they would otherwise deserve just because of that incredible "feature" of theirs.
To avoid making a huge list of the type "100 Things I learned from ..." and to prevent spoiling the movie for you, here are just a few of The Last Seduction's numerous flaws.
- Nearly at the very beginning, you'll learn that if somebody brings you money in exchange of something, it's very likely he points a gun at you but surprisingly not in order to keep the $700,000 for himself. He just wants to keep... the bag.
- You'll learn that when you choose a pseudonym in order to hide your identity from somebody, the best option is to choose the first name your persecutor would think of. Well, the fault here should be extended because the persecutor is an incredible genius able to guess an alias from a first attempt just based on a look at a random newspaper plus a couple of letter tweaks.
- Another useful tip you should remember from the movie is that when you meet somebody being in a process of divorce, you must know for sure there is inevitably something suspicious about his past marriage. Therefore you shouldn't miss making a trip to another city and talking to the other divorcee in order to find out a presumptive great secret.
- And please, note: if your wife robs you and wants you dead, the best you can do when you're most defenceless is to bring her up near you.
These examples should be enough to stress the point but when you watch the movie you can easily add lots of other issues to the short list above.
Well, there are many movies with a lot of plot detail issues (although hardly with so many faults as this film) but it's a pity The Last Seduction is so flawed in the details since it is otherwise a good movie. All of the unbelievable points above just spoil the pleasant experience of the plot itself. Yes, the main plot is Okay although not being the most original one. The acting is overall good and the lead actress Linda Fiorentino portrays the skinny but sexy bitch Bridget Gregory with ease. It is worth seeing this movie even only because of Fiorentino's memorable performance. You'll hear a few interesting lines among an overall good dialog too. The pacing is all right. And the problem with the unbelievability here is not so striking as for example in a courtroom drama like Anatomy of a Murder where one would except the plot details to be as realistic as possible. Still, it's not a parody either like, e.g., Blazing Saddles in order to justify the superfluous use of events less probable to happen than a lottery win.
So, if you haven't seen The Last Seduction movie, it's fine to do it. You could even enjoy it more when knowing in advance there are flaws of a certain kind. But it would be a much better movie if somebody had taken care to put more realism in the screenplay. It does not cost additional money after all.
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