Columbia Pictures
Written and Directed by Roger Kumble
Starring: Ryan Phillippe, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Reese Witherspoon, and (in alphabetical order): Christine Baranski, Selma Blair, Louise Fletcher, Joshua Jackson, Swoosie Kurtz, Eric Mabius, Sean Patrick Thomas, etc.
Cruel Intentions is the film industry's latest version of the classic French novel, Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) by Pierre Laclos, which has been filmed three times previously.
In Roger Kumble's version, however, the action takes place not in pre-Revolutionary France, but in contemporary New York. Amazingly, Kumble's take survives the transition very well. Sebastian Valmont (Phillippe) and Kathryn Merteuil (Gellar) are just as cruel and vicious in today's world as they were under the ancien regime of the French monarchy.
The crux of the story of Dangerous Liaisons is that Sebastian and Kathryn play games with the lives of other people, preferably the innocent and naive (because they are amusing to torment Sadistically) or those who have wronged one or the other of them. The stakes? In Cruel Intentions, Kathryn pledges unrestricted sex to lady-killer Sebastian, while Sebastian puts up his beloved 1956 Jaguar convertible. The twist in this contemporary version? Sebastian and Kathryn are half-brother and sister, and Sebastian has been lusting after his unattainable half-sister since their parents married.
Sebastian's physical good looks and his sociopathic charm are displayed early on in the film, when we see him manipulating his psychiatrist (Kurtz, who appeared in the Stephen Frears version of Dangerous Liaisons). Watching Sebastian in action, it is no wonder at all that he needs therapy!
The principle targets of Kathryn and Sebastian's game in Cruel Intentions are the virtuous Annette Hargrove (Witherspoon), the contemporary version of the original's Mme. De Tourvel, and the innocent Cecile (Blair).
What are the offenses of these two upstanding young women? Annette has written an article in a national magazine (note: check out who is on the cover!) praising virginity and her determination to remain virginal until marriage. Cecile and her mother (Baranski) annoy Kathryn, and Cecile will be a useful pawn in her plan to ruin the reputation of her former boyfriend (Charlie O'Connell, in a cameo).
Along the way, Sebastian and Kathryn engage in all matter of naughtiness, perpetrating most of the mortal sins (and quite a few venial ones!). The complex spider-web of their villainy is tantalizingly revealed, sub-plot by sub-plot. Among the major acts of debauchery and blackmail: Kathryn teaches Cecile how to kiss in order to warm her up, as it were, for Sebastian's seduction of her; Sebastian walks in on football star Greg McConnell (Eric Mabius) as he is playing top-man to Sebastian's friend, drug supplier Blaine Tuttle (Joshua Jackson) and photographs the two of them flagrante delicto. Blaine doesn't mind this intrusion at all -- it's his idea, in fact -- he's grown tired of Greg's hiding of his sexual liaison with Blaine in his closet (or locker, as the case may be), and wants a weapon to use against his hypocritical lover.
Along the way, however, the wager hits an unexpected snag: Sebastian, who has casually used and discarded countless women, begins feeling first sympathy, and then love for his victim-to-be, Annette. Even though this development will help her to win the wager, Kathryn turns on Sebastian, reviling him for becoming weak and sentimental, while Sebatian tries vainly to protect Annette from becoming enmeshed in Kathryn's schemes.
It is here that those who know anything about anything of today's young stars will probably be most revolted (or at least cringe). In real life Phillippe and Witherspoon have been living together for almost two years, and are expecting a child in the fall. Anyone who is aware of this and who sees Sebastian and Annette becoming intimate must either recoil in revulsion at the voyeuristic intrusion into what must be an intimate part of their real daily lives, or be as lacking in moral sensibility as Sebastian and Kathryn themselves. Indeed, it is Phillippe and Witherspoon's most intimate scenes together which best underscore what the film is all about: the objectification of human beings and their use as toys for the amusement of others.
It is terribly easy for the viewer to become infatuated with Kathryn and Sebastian's lavish lifestyle and their devious schemes, but when Phillippe and Witherspoon are on screen together, the utterly degrading nature of the "game" becomes explicit. Watching Sebastian manipulate and seduce Annette is painfully uncomfortable (although it is undoubtedly morally uplifting) -- it forces the informed viewer to question our society's intrusion into the private lives of celebrities (such as Phillippe and Witherspoon!) and wonder whether or not we are really any better or morally superior to the reprehensible Kathryn and Sebastian.
Near the end of Cruel Intentions the terms of the wager begin to be understood by those who have been victimized by it, and the classic duel among rivals takes place. This film is set in Manhattan, remember, and Kumble's handling of what would probably be a swordfight along a cliff edge or the parapet of a chateau wall is a minor touch of brilliance. Regretably, it is too short to build up the high level of suspense which it merits.
Is Cruel Intentions a good movie? No -- it's a very wicked movie -- wickedly delightful and amusing. I give it what is ordinarily my highest rating: W8: Worth $8.00. Be warned, however, that it is MPAA rated "R" for restricted audiences -- people who can't handle seeing Ryan Phillippe's bare bum, or Joshua Jackson and Eric Mabius in bed together, or the WB network's Selma Blair and Sarah Michelle Gellar Kissing (with a capital "K"), or Sarah Michelle straddling Ryan in bed, or Ryan doing very intimate things with his soon-to-be-real-life wife Reese Witherspoon and also with Sarah Michelle Gellar will not be able to deal with this movie. ("Buffy" fans who saw the evil anti-Willow episode and were freaked out by seeing her licking Sunnydale's "normal" Willow's neck will be totally unable to handle this film; for those who found that scene amusing, or interesting, or erotic, however, Cruel Intentions will be just what Dr. Greenbaum ordered!) If you are mentally stable and healthy you will probably find Cruel Intentions to be very funny and viciously bitchy, and . . . well . . . worth eight bucks for a theater ticket!
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