Fresh Bait Movie Review

French sophisticates cringed in horror, I'm sure, when news of this (true) 1993 crime came to light: A girl and her two friends tortured and murdered a pair of wealthy men. Why? Because they wanted to raise money to open an upscale clothing boutique in the United States.

Well, it's easier than venture capital. And it helps if you're a psychopath. The movie belongs to ingenue Marie Gillain (best known as the daughter in My Father the Hero), who just so happens to appear naked pretty much throughout the entire film. Nothing wrong with that, and in fact it's not totally gratuitous: You'd have to be a nut to strip this often in front of this many people.

Unfortunately renowned director Bertrand Tavernier is far too intent on capturing the minutaie of the trio's crime to make this a compelling movie. It comes off feeling like a courtroom dissection of the events, with the minute-by-minute blow being read coldly by some mortician. The motives, the psychology, and even the aftermath of all of this are never properly revealed. Then again, maybe nobody really has any idea what the hell was going on in these kid's brains.

Aka L'Appât.