Once upon a time there were three young actresses named Sarah Michelle, Selma and Laura Jean, who for reasons best known to herself preferred to be called Reese. They acted together in a film called "Cruel Intentions", after which fate had different things in store for our three friends. Sarah Michelle went on to star in the two "Scooby-Doo" films which achieved the difficult feat of making even the original cartoon series look intelligent by comparison. Selma may one day become the greatest Lady Macbeth of the twenty-first century, but even if she does she will have difficulty living down the "I can't believe I'm making love to a big purple elephant" scene from the awesomely tasteless "The Sweetest Thing". (Yes, I know she didn't say "making love" but decency forbids a verbatim quotation). And Reese? Reese went on to give a cracking performance in one of the best films of 2005 and won a well-deserved Oscar. It just goes to show you never can tell.
"Cruel Intentions" transfers the basic plot of "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" to a modern-day American school, thus doing for Choderlos de Laclos what "Clueless" did for Jane Austen. (Whether either Monsieur de Laclos or Miss Austen actually needed this service is a matter open to debate). The main characters become teenage step-siblings, Kathryn Merteuil and Sebastian Valmont, both pupils at an exclusive boarding school. Most of the action takes place during the summer holidays and, like most teenagers with too much time on their hands, Kathryn and Sebastian are bored. In order to combat the monotony of their daily lives, they make a bet with one another that Sebastian can seduce Annette, the headmaster's daughter who has publicly proclaimed that she intends to save her virginity until marriage. If Sebastian fails, he will have to give Kathryn his most prized possession, a vintage sports car. If he succeeds, Kathryn will sleep with him. (Kinky, I know, but as they're not actually related by blood no criminal statutes will be violated). In addition, there is a sub-plot involving the evil pair's attempts to corrupt the morals of Cecile, a terminally naive girl who has somehow managed to snare Kathryn's boyfriend.
As is normal in Hollywood films about teenagers, the lead parts are all played by actors several years older than the characters they represent. This convention seems to be motivated by censorship considerations; the American film censors seem to operate a curious double standard whereby plot lines about underage sex are acceptable provided the actors involved are all in their twenties (or, in some cases, their thirties).
The film has been compared unfavourably with "Dangerous Liaisons", the "straight" version of the story from 1988. I have never, however, been a great admirer of Stephen Frears's film. Certainly, it is beautifully acted (much more so than "Cruel Intentions"), but it always seemed to me to be claustrophobic and airless, set in its own highly artificial world. Its atmosphere of world-weariness and heartless cruelty never seems real, except perhaps to those who take at face value all those History Made Simple textbooks that tell us that the eighteenth century French aristocracy were all creepily decadent sadists who thoroughly deserved their fate at the hands of Madame Guillotine. "Cruel Intentions", by contrast, is not played straight, but transforms the story into a black comedy. Certainly, I doubt if real life teenagers would be quite as skilfully manipulative as Sebastian and Katherine, but this is not a realistic drama and has no ambitions to be one, so the question is not really relevant.
Sarah Michelle Gellar has never struck me as a great actress. She was cute and sexy in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", but her character was never more than a cute and sexy version of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. About her role in "Scooby-Doo" the less said the better. In "Cruel Intentions", however, her rather mannered, knowing style of acting serves her well. Kathryn is an upper-class version of Cordelia, the character played by Charisma Carpenter in "Buffy"- the attractive, seemingly popular girl who, underneath the surface, is a prize bitch. The difference is that whereas Cordelia was merely shallow and thoughtless, Kathryn is hard, brittle and positively malevolent. Sebastian is equally amoral- a hardened seducer without a though in his head for the rights or feelings of others. There is a hint in Ryan Philippe's portrayal that, like many hardened seducers, his seductions are undertaken in order to feed his ego as much as his libido.
Of the pair's two victims, Selma Blair's Cecile is too much of a booby ever to attract our sympathy, the sort of girl who reminds us that not only did the word "silly" originally mean "innocent" but also that there is sometimes a close connection between innocence and silliness in the modern sense. Reese Witherspoon's Annette is a different matter. She resists the temptation to play her character either as another silly innocent or as a Bible-thumping born-again hypocrite. She makes Annette not only morally principled but also smart, shrewd and likable. At first she seems to have Sebastian's measure, but eventually neither her principles nor her shrewdness are proof against his lies and blandishments. She finds herself falling in love with him and allows him to seduce her.
More surprisingly, Sebastian finds himself falling in love with Annette, so much so that he even refuses to claim his promised reward from Kathryn. It is at this point that the film abruptly changes tack. What started out as a cynical, amoral and sometimes witty black comedy becomes a sentimentally moralising conventional teen-film. The ending (which I will not reveal) is particularly tear-jerking. It is as though the film-makers lacked the courage of their convictions. Or perhaps I should say they lacked the courage of their lack of convictions. 6/10
"Cruel Intentions" transfers the basic plot of "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" to a modern-day American school, thus doing for Choderlos de Laclos what "Clueless" did for Jane Austen. (Whether either Monsieur de Laclos or Miss Austen actually needed this service is a matter open to debate). The main characters become teenage step-siblings, Kathryn Merteuil and Sebastian Valmont, both pupils at an exclusive boarding school. Most of the action takes place during the summer holidays and, like most teenagers with too much time on their hands, Kathryn and Sebastian are bored. In order to combat the monotony of their daily lives, they make a bet with one another that Sebastian can seduce Annette, the headmaster's daughter who has publicly proclaimed that she intends to save her virginity until marriage. If Sebastian fails, he will have to give Kathryn his most prized possession, a vintage sports car. If he succeeds, Kathryn will sleep with him. (Kinky, I know, but as they're not actually related by blood no criminal statutes will be violated). In addition, there is a sub-plot involving the evil pair's attempts to corrupt the morals of Cecile, a terminally naive girl who has somehow managed to snare Kathryn's boyfriend.
As is normal in Hollywood films about teenagers, the lead parts are all played by actors several years older than the characters they represent. This convention seems to be motivated by censorship considerations; the American film censors seem to operate a curious double standard whereby plot lines about underage sex are acceptable provided the actors involved are all in their twenties (or, in some cases, their thirties).
The film has been compared unfavourably with "Dangerous Liaisons", the "straight" version of the story from 1988. I have never, however, been a great admirer of Stephen Frears's film. Certainly, it is beautifully acted (much more so than "Cruel Intentions"), but it always seemed to me to be claustrophobic and airless, set in its own highly artificial world. Its atmosphere of world-weariness and heartless cruelty never seems real, except perhaps to those who take at face value all those History Made Simple textbooks that tell us that the eighteenth century French aristocracy were all creepily decadent sadists who thoroughly deserved their fate at the hands of Madame Guillotine. "Cruel Intentions", by contrast, is not played straight, but transforms the story into a black comedy. Certainly, I doubt if real life teenagers would be quite as skilfully manipulative as Sebastian and Katherine, but this is not a realistic drama and has no ambitions to be one, so the question is not really relevant.
Sarah Michelle Gellar has never struck me as a great actress. She was cute and sexy in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", but her character was never more than a cute and sexy version of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. About her role in "Scooby-Doo" the less said the better. In "Cruel Intentions", however, her rather mannered, knowing style of acting serves her well. Kathryn is an upper-class version of Cordelia, the character played by Charisma Carpenter in "Buffy"- the attractive, seemingly popular girl who, underneath the surface, is a prize bitch. The difference is that whereas Cordelia was merely shallow and thoughtless, Kathryn is hard, brittle and positively malevolent. Sebastian is equally amoral- a hardened seducer without a though in his head for the rights or feelings of others. There is a hint in Ryan Philippe's portrayal that, like many hardened seducers, his seductions are undertaken in order to feed his ego as much as his libido.
Of the pair's two victims, Selma Blair's Cecile is too much of a booby ever to attract our sympathy, the sort of girl who reminds us that not only did the word "silly" originally mean "innocent" but also that there is sometimes a close connection between innocence and silliness in the modern sense. Reese Witherspoon's Annette is a different matter. She resists the temptation to play her character either as another silly innocent or as a Bible-thumping born-again hypocrite. She makes Annette not only morally principled but also smart, shrewd and likable. At first she seems to have Sebastian's measure, but eventually neither her principles nor her shrewdness are proof against his lies and blandishments. She finds herself falling in love with him and allows him to seduce her.
More surprisingly, Sebastian finds himself falling in love with Annette, so much so that he even refuses to claim his promised reward from Kathryn. It is at this point that the film abruptly changes tack. What started out as a cynical, amoral and sometimes witty black comedy becomes a sentimentally moralising conventional teen-film. The ending (which I will not reveal) is particularly tear-jerking. It is as though the film-makers lacked the courage of their convictions. Or perhaps I should say they lacked the courage of their lack of convictions. 6/10