Review: Cruel Intentions (1999)

Sometimes a film, a great film, can have a profound effect on a person. It can change the way they think, act, or speak. Cruel Intention is not a great film, nor did it have a profound effect on me, but it made me smile throughout the whole movie. And I am still smiling, right now, just thinking about it.

Those expecting another Wild Things will be disappointed. While this film is even more sex-obsessed, it is not quite as barbed. Still, Cruel Intentions is sharper than any teen flick in recent memory, but that may be because these teens are not exactly your everyday adolescents. This is NOT the sort of teen flick in which the viewer associates with the characters. These teens are rich, snobby, manipulative, witty, and, above all, cruel. This flick is not just for teens.

Cruel Intentions is "suggested" by the 19th century French novel "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" or "Dangerous Liaisons". If you are not familiar with the story… keep it that way until you see this movie. Up until the end, the film gives the book a very close 90’s update.

Ryan Phillipe plays Sebastian Valmont, a sort of Don Juan meets Bart Simpson; a man-child brat bordering on nymphomania. He likes to use people for sex, fun, or whatever else he feels like. Oh, did I mention he was 17. Sarah Michelle Gellar plays his step-sister, Kathrine, a coke-snorting bitch who pretends to be "the Marcia Brady of the upper East Side" just to make people like her. And everybody loves her, as she is the student body president at her prep-school, as well as the most popular girl in school.

Sebastian lately has grown bored of his easy sexual and immoral conquests, "I’m sick of sleeping with these insipid Manhattan debutantes," he says. Kathryn wants him to help her get revenge on her ex-boyfriend by screwing around with his puerile girlfriend, Cecile (an impressively moronic performance by Selma Blair). However, he has found a much more difficult challenge: Annette Hardgrove (Reese Witherspoon), who had just written a manifesto in Seventeen magazine about her choice for virginity. Sebastian decides to try change that choice, but Kathryn doesn’t have faith in her step-bro. The two make a wager, if Sebastian loses Kathryn gets his gorgeous car, if Sebastian wins he gets Kathryn: the only girl he can’t bed.

There is much more to the story than that including a black character, a homosexual character, a few parents, and some prep-school jocks. The script does an excellent job of balancing these many characters, without it getting confusing. However, it does go a little too far in some scenes that could be described as racist or homophobic. Still, there are some very funny moments, and some very sexy ones.

Acting is good all around, which was a surprise. I must say that I have never liked Phillipe in a movie until now. He always makes me want to smash a beer bottle in his face (IKWYDLS, 54). But in this he was very cool and very smart. Gellar played a super super-tramp, and Blair was hilariously vacuous. However, Witherspoon, so good in Pleasantville, has not quite as impressive as the rest here, probably due to her character not being written as well.

If you liked the commercial, with its trip-hop music and flashy editing, you’ll love the movie as it is done pretty much the same. While this style didn’t work for Great Expectations last year, it did work for Cruel Intentions, and very well. The music is one of the best reasons to see the movie. Also, its production design is very impressive, and its cinematography perfect.

Here’s my one major gripe. The ending is a sheep, while the rest of the movie is a wolf. It just wusses out and provides a needlessly moralistic ending, which is probably satisfying to the average American moron who made The Waterboy a $160 million dollar success.

But, ending aside, it’s mostly a very well done picture. With some flaws, but so many pleasures, Cruel Intention deserves to be on your must see list.

Copyright © 1997-2000 Bjørn Erik Hundland. All rights reserved.
Best viewed with IE 5.0 and/or Netscape 4.0. - Contact The Movie Page.
Original Movie-Page Design By Web Byrået Norge A/S. Hosted by Digiweb.