"She is driven by a strange fascination for Catharine, voluntarily putting herself between her and her new prey, French hotelier Paul Nuytten (Frey), only to be used as an incentive to prompt him to marry Catharine, a rather cunning move on the latter's part. Catharine is no ordinary femme fatale, her friendship with Alexandra might be plastic, her fang isn't, psychology-and-toxicology savvy, she can "almost" alway gets she wants. "Almost" is the operative word here. Her only misstep is that when she could do away with Alexandra in a freaky scuba-diving accident (or with malice aforethought), she thinks better of it. Chances are if Alexandra comes clean to Paul, it will upset Catharine's apple cart, that is exactly what happens, hubris is her Achilles heel. Although, the twist in the end feels more like a deus ex machina than an effectively engineered entrapment. Winger and Russell call forth enough appeal as both are cognizant of each other's disguises and true motives, with the latter leaving a more emphatically inscrutable patina of mystique that pips the former's conflicted interiority."
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