The Last Seduction, DVD Review

I can't say enough about this film.
It is my favorite. It's such a favorite film of mine that when I came to New York and didn't have a "drink" when going to bars, I ordered a Manhattan like Bridgette and to this day I still drink it.

 What makes this film so good to me is one, she's smart and two she doesn't pull back. It would've been easy to have her chicken out and go good girl at the end. But Bridgette  has her eyes on the prize from beginning to end. Whether you consider her the Devil or a tarnished angel she doesn't stop.
Also she thinks.
It’s so wonderful to see someone sit down and have to figure out a problem, to have to plot a manipulation, to leap at opportunities that may mean nothing and MAKE them mean something.
I like the fact that she plays every card in the deck: sex, homophobia, lust, and race, anything it takes to in a sense stay alive.

Now this may seem like a thoroughly evil person but there points in this film where Bridgette  does "crack" or try to really be herself. There's the one where Mike asks who she is, what she's doing and she tries to explain to him about her husband and the money while playing pool. He doesn't take her seriously. For two reasons, he doesn't think she's that smart or capable and he can't fathom himself doing it either. One thing I've learned is that the smarter you see yourself. The more capable you feel about yourself the easier it is to understand others even if their goals and methods are opposed to your own. It takes smarts to see smarts.

There's also the point where Bridgette  has been forced to fake the accident with the private investigator. Before she leaves and is caught, she tries to have Mike comfort her, to really listen to her. But two things have happened. She's played the game so well that her sincerity comes across as false and two; he doesn't want someone without secrets. Who doesn't have the upper hand? Some people are drawn to being destroyed by others because it validates their existence. If someone would take the time to destroy you it means that you exist, that you have meaning. But Bridget does crack here, she's ready to fess up and be with Mike as an equal and he blows her off to play hockey. Her voice even cracks and in some ways we can see how Bridgette  is the way she is because no one is a race horse like she is. That she is tougher because the disappointment of others has made her tough to begin with. That honest emotion I can relate to and it's why I like Bridgette   If she was just uncaringly evil, she'd be no fun but you understand why Bridgette  is the way she is if you look at when she lets her defenses down.

Above all else she is the consummate chess player, understanding that the game is never to the pieces your playing with but to destroying the other side. Being cut off from running because of her husband's debts and her desire NOT to run has boxed her in into not so much fighting in the way that men or women perceive fighting but the way thinkers do. A thinker knows that everything and everybody is a weapon or a defense in a fight. That each word is a calculation, that each action should mean or be about something and seeing that ability on screen is what makes this film on my top 3 favorite films of my entire life.

And I've seen tooooooooooooo many movies to say that lightly. Another film on that short list is Fresh.


Thank you for reading,
Kyle Phoenix
Email: kylephoenixshow@aol.com
Website: http://kylephoenixsite.com/
Blog: http://kylephoenixshow.blogspot.com/2012
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