The Right Temptation (2000)

Sadly Over-hyped

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

Blistering performances.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I just love watching thrillers, I don't need to see a lot of murder, blood, or heavy artillery for a good thriller to capture my attention. A good musical score helps and I will say that The Right Temptation's musical score was suspenseful. Unfortunately the suspense was contained with the music score only and not with the screenplay.I like to watch films that provide some assurance of a relatively good film we are about to see based on the star power of the films main characters. In this case we have three pretty good actors in Kiefer Sutherland who plays Michael-Farrow Smith a high stakes financier who is managing his empire from the top floor of the city's skyscraper where he can oversee the city. His wife, Anthea, is played by Dana Delany more recently associated as the Medical Examiner on TV's current running Body of Proof, so she is familiar to the homicide genre. Last but not least we have an ex-homicide cop, and now a hired adultery chaser for spousal cheating Private Detective Derian McCall, played by the lovely Rebecca De Mornay.Rebecca, I can only assume that you didn't get a chance to read the script before you signed on the dotted line for this year 2000 project. What were you thinking about the lines of Private Detective Derian McCall? Maybe you thought the world was going to end before this film was completed in the new millennium? I think the one main contributor to the films downfall was writer Larry Brand, whose remainder of body of work does not include anything memorable to date. Mmmm? Okay so the story evolves around Aretha Franklin's song "Whose Zoomin' Who?" The wife, Anthea, hires pretty Private Detective Derian McCall to see if her husband can be seduced. "Duh", the story isn't dumb because of this plot it's dumb because of how stupid the ex-cop now Private Detective Derian McCall can actually be. I don't really want to spell out how stupid Detective McCall is but she would have been safer holding anything but a smoking gun when the real cops come in to take over the crime scene.I just don't like being fooled for over an hour that we may be in for a good suspense/thriller to be let down so miserably with 20 minutes still to go in the film. Ms. De Mornay, if they had offered me three times the amount of money to make the film, I still would have turned it down if I was expected to play such a dumb detective as you had to in this film.If there was a film genre coined "LETDOWN" then this film would receive a 9 out of 10 from me. As it is themed as a Drama/Romance/Thriller I can only cough up a 4 out of 10 rating. You are not missing anything if you have not yet seen The Right Temptation.

I have seen this movie a few times now. If you are looking for decent pulp film noir in the style of the old Hardboiled ones from 40' & 50's there is not too much on offer nowadays. This movie is a decent way to spend 90mins.The love triangle has been explored many times in many films, so there is nothing fresh in that sense. However the performances are decent from all three leads in Particular the women. Kiefer Sutherland's performance is a little below par but still OK. The sexual tension is quite prevalent and simmers throughout, and other elements are handled OK.The only problem is that the pace does tend to drag a bit and the movie did seem to feel longer than the 90 mins. However it is still worth the rental price. 6/10

A female P.I., estimated to be "The Right Temptation", is hired by a women to try to seduce her wealthy husband thereby testing his loyalty...blaa, blaa. So begins another plasticized, predictable, trite formula Hollywood clone noirish mystery with characters too shallow, patter too glib, and story too pat. There's nothing here for an audience to sink their teeth into leaving one to just sit back and zone.

This movie had the potential to be very interesting despite a poor performance by Kieffer Sutherland. The plot leave viewers in suspense until about ten minutes before it ended and then it just fizzled out. Either script writers and directors are ignorant of paraffin tests or they just ignore them. As a result the story gets forced into an unrealistic ending. The ending is hackneyed lacking any originality.Rebecca De Mornay was a good selection for her role but her acting could have been better.