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It's many miles to Chicago though so Linda stops off in Beston, a typical hick town full of country-farmer types. In Beston's only bar Linda manages to obtain a drink, with the help of local boy Mike Swale (Peter Berg), for which she gives no thanks. Mike's just got back from an unhappy experience in Buffalo, though he's eager to leave Beston and likes the look of Linda (her looks, manner and behaviour sure stand out). Pretty soon they're back at his place for a one-night stand, since she's got no wish to stay longer than absolutely necessary in such a backward hole. However, her lawyer Frank Griffith (J.T. Walsh) suggests stopping, if she wants to evade Clay. A temporary post is easy to come by, as is a motel room, although Linda gets quite a shock when she discovers that Mike works for the same company. Since she's now using an assumed name, Wendy Kroy, Linda doesn't want Mike messing up her corporate image. With this settled Mike is, at least initially, content to be nothing more than a sex-object.
Meanwhile Clay is eager to track down Linda, since he's got a very persuasive loan-shark visiting weekly and he feels somewhat aggrieved by the behaviour of Linda. With the help of a private detective, Harlan (Bill Nunn), and the intuition gained from having lived with her, Clay manages to determine which section of rural America Linda has washed up in. While Harlan gets sent to Beston on a funds-retrieval mission, Mike starts to become disillusioned in his relationship with Linda. She basically wants sex while he needs a friend, objectives which were bound to clash sooner or later. The amazing thing is that Linda has Mike wrapped around her finger, able to manipulate him into doing almost anything. Unfortunately that 'almost' doesn't include murder.
A modern addition to the femme fatale tradition, The Last Seduction gives Linda free rein to manipulate with abandon then ends with a punch designed to leave you reeling. As the central mastermind, Linda is intelligent, calm, ruthless and lacking any qualms whatsoever. Placed against the naive inhabitants of Beston she towers over them in her amorality, though compared to even the typical city-dweller she's pretty nasty. Fiorentino delivers a tremendous performance, veering form raw selfishness to smooth affection, always convincing and continually deadly. All others revolve within her intricate schemes, although the supporting characters are hardly two-dimensional. Both Pullman and Berg are fine as flip-sides of the same person, drawn like moths towards the insidious insanity of Linda. To make the movie package complete, the plot is well-structured, comprehensible and ingenious. It's reassuring to find a film where the factors used to provide shocks make sense, stemming from reasonable occurrences rather than emerging at the whim of the scriptwriter. A dark study which never loses its nerve, The Last Seduction is well worth the price of admission.
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