Femme Fatale (2002)

Plot:  crazy sexy woman robs some stuff and falls into strange situation where she's French (Laure) but not (Lily), and can travel to alternate universes like Quinn Mallory in Sliders... could be cool...

Review: But it's not!  Man oh man has Brian De Palma fallen off his steed over the past decade (maybe 2...).  I believe he had some interesting notion behind the writing and directing of this film, maybe quite a gem in his head, but his poor execution (everyone else included) led to what really appeared to be a meandering and shallow thriller with a dash of eroticism.

First major problem: is De Palma suffering from dementia?  This story moves around without any cohesive nature, first appearing as provocative heist movie but quickly leading into an improbable time travel film, or characters suffering from multiple personality disorder.  This random nature is not exciting, intriguing, or welcome; it is mostly bothersome and annoying, causing the viewer to scoff more than an 18th English lord watching Problem Child 2.

Rebecca Romijn (Stamos or no Stamos); looks very really cute, but cannot act.  Maybe the former was the only reason she was hired, maybe they thought she could rise to the occasion; either way, she is slightly fun in all the wrong ways.  Antonio Banderas and Peter Coyote (a senator who ignorantly marries Laure/Lily) perform fine with their characters, while everyone else seems to fall flat.

De Palma, behind such works as Scarface, Carrie, and Casualties of War, obviously has talent (The Untouchables is truly amazing; check it now if you haven't seen it).  The question is whether or not he cares to use it anymore, with recent drivel like The Black Dahlia, Snake Eyes, and Mission to Mars (liked part of it). 

After watching this, I was shocked to see other actually appreciated it to an EXTREME extent, arguing that it held special and ridiculous meaning and symbolism related to film noir and cinema in general.  Part of this was clear in the beginning with Double Indemnity on a television, but I must admit I felt as though I had missed the true meaning and needed to view the movie once again.... until I realized that if the director meant to get that across, he should've actually done it instead of making a sub par attempt at entertainment involving priceless golden underwear (don't worry, this is in the beginning of the film, so you won't have to suffer the whole way through it).