Why I'd like to be… Linda Fiorentino in The Last Seduction

http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2014/jul/18/linda-fiorentino-last-seduction-role-model

Version 0 of 1.

Let's make one thing clear: I do not aspire to being a murderous sociopath. But as soon as I clapped eyes on nonchalant, sharp-talking Bridget (Linda Fiorentino) in 1994's noir thriller The Last Seduction, I was filled with the vicarious excitement that the movies' best fantasy figures inspire.

First, she's ruling the sales floor. Then she's playing mind games with her husband Clay (Bill Pullman), a doctor who's foolishly undertaken a lucrative drug deal (foolish mainly because he's married to Bridget). Slipping out with the cash, she hides out in sleepy Beston, where we witness the full force of her manipulative powers.

Like all great con-artist movies, The Last Seduction delivers the thrill of seeing the protagonist use a combination of brains, bravado and bullshit to achieve their goal. We know little about Bridget's past, but she is clearly a woman who knows how to make the best of a situation. She is practical, quick-thinking, and has nerves of steel. Spotting a small town bar, she swiftly sizes up a bed for the night. Mike (Peter Berg) is young, keen and with just enough wit to pass muster in the limited circumstances.

The "seduction" scene between Bridget and Mike is one of the film's most memorable power exchanges. When "Gimme a Manhattan" fails to score Bridget a much-needed drink, Mike achieves it with a simple "please". She then tells him to fuck off. He tells her he's hung like a horse. She asks for – and receives – proof. It's a darkly funny and faintly shocking scene that neatly establishes their relationship. But she's always on top – emotionally, if not always physically.

Reading on mobile? Click here to view

For Bridget – by now going under the name of Wendy – is a keen amateur psychologist. She knows when people (usually men) need to feel in charge. She is extremely rude, but remains desired and admired, which is all she needs to carve out a deliciously self-serving plan.

Again, I have no desire to be a rude person. Quite the opposite. If I think I may have caused someone a passing offence, it can haunt me for days. A quick straw poll of my (kind) friends suggests the film character I most resemble is Anchorman's Veronica Corningstone – hardly in Bridget's league.

But hopefully, the twentysomething me had the sense to filter out Bridget's dubious qualities and seek to emulate her decisiveness, her psychological profiling, her calculated risk-taking. And then there's the confidence: even now, when I'm going on TV or stage, I could do worse than channelling the right bit of Bridget, NLP style.

The Last Seduction may have been a knowing throwback to 40s film noir (Bridget even dresses in black and white throughout), but in the 90s, it offered a better poster woman for so-called "ladette" culture than many: clever, strong-willed, exploiting rather than being exploited.

It's a simplistic post-feminist reaction to inequality, of course. Turning the tables is hardly the answer, but watching Bridget do it in style was such fun! Like many a male fantasy hero – James Bond among them – she was sexually confident, sharp-suited and had her own signature drink. Give me this Manhattan-drinking Bridget over the Chardonnay-swilling one any day.

• Why I'd like to be ... Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark• Why I'd like to be ... Kate Beckinsale in Cold Comfort Farm• More from the Role Model series