Femme Fatale

Starring: Antonio Banderas, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos

RS: 2of 4 Stars

2002 Thriller

How's this for openers? Laure (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) corners Veronica (Rie Rasmussen) in a restroom at the Cannes Film Festival, slips off the gold, diamond-encrusted serpent thingie curled around Veronica's boobs and replaces it with a fake one without Veronica knowing. How? One hot, gratuitous lesbo love scene, that's how.

Writer-director Brian De Palma (Dressed to Kill, Body Double) is back playing teasing, erotic suspense games. OK, he's making less sense than usual. Romijn-Stamos, leggy and luscious, plays a jewel thief who switches identities with a suicide... Hell, I don't know who she's playing. Don't care. Antonio Banderas shows up as a paparazzo who falls prey to Laure's machinations. Who wouldn't? She's a femme fatale of the old school. De Palma -- a master of kinky, delirious visuals -- hooks you good.

PETER TRAVERS
(November 14, 2002)