Director Brian De Palma returns to familiar terrain with FEMME FATALE, a loopy, sexy thriller that plays like a "greatest hits" of the controversial director's tics, tricks, and obsessions. Here the story follows a beautiful seductress (Rebecca Romjin-Stamos) who betrays her cohorts during an elaborate diamond heist at the Cannes Film Festival, then disappears to America under the stolen identity of a dead French girl to whom she bears an uncanny resemblance. Seven years later she returns to Paris when her American husband (Peter Coyote) accepts a position as French ambassador. That's when Antonio Banderas, as a goofy photographer, enters the picture and becomes her lover and dupe in another elaborate scheme. Along the way there's steamy lesbianism, misogynistic violence, split-screens, double-crosses, time loops, VERTIGO-style stalking, a hot striptease, and plenty of dark comedy and sly homage to other films, all in the classic De Palma tradition. His fans should be thrilled, as this harkens back to the director's DRESSED TO KILL, BLOW OUT, and BODY DOUBLE days. Novices should prepare to throw credibility to the wind and just enjoy the stylistic bravado, the twists and turns, and the ravishing Stamos--who backs up her beauty with a captivating, enigmatic performance.