I really, really don’t think so, but I can understand how people would see it that way.
Here’s my take on the film. Warning, spoilers abound.
First off, the movie doesn’t even pretend to take place in the real world. The very first shot of the film tells you what it’s going to be about. Remember? The closeup of the TV screen, with noir classic Double Indemnity playing? And the naked body of the title character reflected thereon? A more blatant statement of purpose I can hardly imagine.
In brief, Femme Fatale takes place firmly in Movie World. Rules of reality need not apply; everything is about perception and artificiality. Note how many times we’re looking through things (the frosted glass in the bathroom, or the overflowing aquarium), and how that affects our vision. Note, also, all the reflections (there’s a good one maybe forty minutes in, with a gigantic neon plus sign reflected in the foreground: a “double cross,” get it?). Further note that, up until the femme fatale gets tossed off the bridge, there’s exactly one scene where the characters tell the truth to one another without at least one of them engaging in playacting or prevarication (e.g., the photographer’s fey accent getting into the hotel room, or the American ambassador telling the policeman that no crime has been committed, and on and on; the truth-telling scene sees the photographer in the police interrogation room, and, hilariously, he isn’t believed). And, in general, we’re expected to take at face value all sorts of implausible contrivances (e.g., the mechanics of the opening heist) and ridiculous coincidences (e.g., the lookalike suicide) that simply wouldn’t fly in a more realistic picture.
Femme Fatale, therefore, is not an erotic suspense thriller; it’s a movie about erotic suspense thrillers. This provides the key for understanding the plot reversal when the femme fatale wakes up in the bathtub. The middle section isn’t a dream; it’s the inevitable fate of the femme fatale, who must be punished for her wicked deeds. (Movies like The Last Seduction, in which the manipulative woman succeeds, are the exception that proves the rule.)
In this film, the femme fatale suddenly understands the rules of the movie she’s in, and recognizes that in order to escape predestination, she has to do something un-femme-fatale-like. Normally, the femme fatale takes every opportunity she comes across, and initially that’s what happens: She steals the airline ticket from her doppelganger. But then, with this plan available but not yet consummated, she wakes up in the bathtub, realizing where this will inevitably lead – i.e., the long middle section of the film. Note her uncertainty as she wobbles to her hiding place. She has foreknowledge of her fate, but doesn’t know immediately how to escape it.
Then she realizes she has to turn down the opportunity, to do something utterly out of character for the femme fatale. She’s still the “bad girl,” though, so she doesn’t step out and give the suicidal girl a hug, saying, it’ll be all right, go get on the plane, etc. No, she puts the gun on her, threatening her, intimidating her into action, because she doesn’t know how else to be. But that’s how she short-circuits her otherwise inescapable destiny.
To put it another way, Femme Fatale is about a powerful female character who is so strong she can literally warp and control the movie she suddenly realizes she’s in. This explains the “problem” with point of view some people have complained about (i.e., if it’s her “dream,” why do we spend so much time with the photographer character?). She isn’t dreaming; she’s watching her movie unfold according to the rules of the genre. And according to those rules, she has to die, unless she can derail the story onto an unexpected path and thereby thwart the cinematic powers that be.
De Palma litters clues throughout the film, if you’re looking for them. I mentioned a few above, but the big one is the title. The movie isn’t called The Diamond Heist or The Photographer and the Villainess or some other variation. It’s called Femme Fatale, because that’s what it’s about. Not one specifically, but about how that archetype functions in film.
I’ll say it again: Femme Fatale is De Palma’s best movie in 20 years, and is one of the best I’ve seen this year.