Movie Reviews

Cruel Intentions reminded me a little of something that was discussed briefly in one of my earlier English courses in university, in relation to some of the late nineteenth-century works of playwright Henrik Ibsen. You see, there has always been a certain class of society that is so filthy rich that they've never had to work a day in their lives, and partly as a consequence, they become isolated from the 'common folk' and devoid of 'normal' morals. Their primary source of entertainment, then, becomes to play silly but damaging games with one another's reputation and esteem. They'll spread demeaning gossip around their peers, or recklessly engage in unloving affairs.

Cruel Intentions certainly isn't high art. I bring up the Ibsen stuff because the film is about people who have nothing better to do but mess around dangerously with other peoples' social lives. Ryan Phillipe plays Sebastian Valmont, and Sarah Michelle Gellar plays his stepsister, Katheryn Merteuil. When they learn that Annette Hargrove (Reese Witherspoon) -- the daughter of a local university's headmaster -- has proudly decided to stay celibate until marriage, Katheryn bets Sebastian that he can't trick her into changing her mind and sleeping with him. If Sebastian loses, Katheryn gets his beloved Jaguar. If Sebastian wins, he 'gets' the only girl who's so far been unobtainable to him: Katheryn.

I find it hard to enjoy movies that are short on likeable characters, and the two main characters here -- Sebastian and Katheryn -- are really big jerks. For the most part though, Cruel Intentions manages to be fairly entertaining and moderately funny, in a slightly mean and dark kind of way. In a sense, the audience is made to "root for the bad guy (and girl)", and the writing and acting makes them just barely endearing enough to do so. It's amusing how they get their 'comeuppance' in the end, though.