A woman (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) tries to straighten out her life, even as her past as a con-woman comes back to haunt her.
The highlight of this film is the gay Antonio Banderas. How often do you get to see that? I do not think you have ever seen it before this or since (though I would love to be corrected).
Roger Ebert says, "This is a movie about watching and being watched, about seeing and not knowing what you see." De Palma is known for his theme of voyeurism, and there is that aspect here: not only are we voyeurs to the film, but one of the main characters takes photographs of people who would rather remain private.
Ebert also says, "Romijn-Stamos ... is a great Hitchcock heroine -- blond, icy, desirable, duplicitous -- with a knack for contemptuously manipulating the hero." This is an interesting observation. On the one hand it rightly praises Romijn-Stamos (this is her best role), but also has that reminder that many people see De Palma as derivative of Hitchcock (among others) and not necessarily in a complimentary way.
We also have his split-screen, which has been used in more than a few of De Palma's films ("Blow Out" and "Phantom of the Paradise" immediately come to mind). Does it work? Oddly, yes.
The highlight of this film is the gay Antonio Banderas. How often do you get to see that? I do not think you have ever seen it before this or since (though I would love to be corrected).
Roger Ebert says, "This is a movie about watching and being watched, about seeing and not knowing what you see." De Palma is known for his theme of voyeurism, and there is that aspect here: not only are we voyeurs to the film, but one of the main characters takes photographs of people who would rather remain private.
Ebert also says, "Romijn-Stamos ... is a great Hitchcock heroine -- blond, icy, desirable, duplicitous -- with a knack for contemptuously manipulating the hero." This is an interesting observation. On the one hand it rightly praises Romijn-Stamos (this is her best role), but also has that reminder that many people see De Palma as derivative of Hitchcock (among others) and not necessarily in a complimentary way.
We also have his split-screen, which has been used in more than a few of De Palma's films ("Blow Out" and "Phantom of the Paradise" immediately come to mind). Does it work? Oddly, yes.