Solenn Heussaff Runs Away With 'Seduction' As A French Girl Obsessed With Richard Gutierrez

THERE’S AN obvious effort to change Richard Gutierrez’ clean cut image in “Seduction” and project more of him a serious actor. He’s shown cursing in Tagalog, smoking, getting drunk, getting soiled and grimy and yes, there’s a partial butt exposure in a love scene with Solenn Heussaff, but nothing as flagrant as what Zanjoe Marudo or Jake Cuenca did in “One More Try” or “My Neighbor’s Wife”. As Ram, Richard is a fireman who gets suspended for suspicion of extorting money from fire victims.

This happens at a time when he needs money for the kidney transplant of his dad (Mark Gil, who shines in a short role). He then meets a beautiful French girl, Sophia (Solenn), who he saves from a burning hotel. She hires him as her bodyguard and pays him well. They end up in bed. But he also falls in love with his landlady, Trina (Sarah Lahbati), and violent complications occur when he dumps Sophia for Trina.

Richard does well in his offbeat role and Sarah makes a fetching debut in her first big movie. But it’s Solenn who runs away with the movie simply because she has the more attention getting and demanding role ala-Glenn Close in “Fatal Attraction”. Solenn is so effective because she’s not acting. She interprets her “baliw” role so naturally, so effortlessly, whether she’s acting like a carefree “diwata” prancing around, a vamp coming out of the water in her skimpy bikinis, or a psychotic “babaeng bakla” who’ll do anything for love. This is clearly her movie.