Throughout a string of post-"Basic Instinct" duds ("Sliver", "Intersection", "Sphere", and this one), Sharon Stone has managed to retain her dignity on-screen and hold onto her celebrity allure off-screen. Even in the terrible "Diabolique", she is wickedly funny, dry as a poisoned martini, and sexy in her '50s movie-magazine way. The picture, a remake of the 1955 French thriller from director Henri-Georges Clouzot, has two female teachers plotting to bump off one's abusive husband, but the screenplay is full of holes and cheap shots. Red herrings abound as the two women find they are being watched, and are later dogged by a woman detective (Kathy Bates, doing her best with a sour role). Nothing quite fits together plot-wise at the conclusion of "Diabolique". It is one messed up jigsaw. *1/2 from ****
Review of Diabolique
