THE AISLE SEAT - "CRUEL INTENTIONS"
by Mike McGranaghan
Somehow, it's become trendy to take classic pieces of literature and translate them into youth appeal movies with contemporary settings, alt-rock soundtracks, and hip young stars. Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" was done MTV-style with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. Dickens' "Great Expectations" put Gwyneth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke in modern-day Manhattan. Clueless was a new take on Jane Austen's "Emma." Now comes Cruel Intentions, inspired by Choderlos de Laclos's "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" (better known in this country as "Dangerous Liaisons"). Do you ever get the feeling that the same people who write Cliff's Notes are now greenlighting movies in Hollywood?
In all fairness, I liked Cruel Intentions a lot. Sure, it's a simplified version of an oft-told tale, but it works. Sarah Michelle Gellar (of my favorite TV show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") stars as Kathryn, a spoiled little rich girl who poses as a prim and proper princess at her tony prep school. It's an act that she pulls off quite well. In reality, Kathryn snorts cocaine and plays sexual games with a variety of men. Her stepbrother is Sebastian (Ryan Phillippe). He's a smooth talker who enjoys frequent sexual conquests. For him, the joy comes in tricking girls into sleeping with him, then callously breaking their hearts. There is one young woman who Sebastian yearns for more than any other - Kathryn - and the fact that he can't have her drives him crazy.
This leads to the bet. Sebastian, looking for a challenge, wagers that he can deflower Annette Hargrove (Reese Witherspoon), the headmaster's daughter who recently published a "proud to be a virgin" manifesto in Seventeen magazine. Kathryn thinks there's no way he can tempt this most virtuous of girls. And so the bet is made. If Kathryn wins, she gets Sebastian's shiny sports car. If Sebastian wins, he gets Kathryn.
As the bad boy begins coming on to the quintessential good girl, Kathryn schemes to get back at Cecile (Selma Blair), a dorky teenager who inadvertently stole her boyfriend away. Cecile is one of the most original characters I've seen in a long while - a bundle of awkward sexuality, a geeky sex kitten. She falls victim to Kathryn's manipulation and is soon tapping into her carnal urges. Sebastian, meanwhile, finds that the more he tries to con Annette, the more he begins to fall in love with her. There's something about her goodness that gets under his skin. He's met the one girl he can't get out of his system.
Cruel Intentions works for a number of reasons. I think setting the story among teenagers was a masterstroke. The characters here are not merely evil; they are adolescents caught in that moment when sexual prowess is discovered and can become the gateway to a whole new feeling of power. While I certainly wouldn't suggest that all teenagers are as detestable as the ones in this movie, I think we all remember a few fellow high school students who turned their sexual proclivities into a game. The film suggests that there's a thin line between normal teenage horniness and aberrant sexual predation, and these particular characters have crossed it.
The young cast seems to get this idea and they make their characters believeable, despite the immoral things they do. Ryan Phillippe brings the same edginess to Sebastian that has become his trademark in films like I Know What You Did Last Summer and 54. You feel like this is a young man teetering on the brink of destruction. Sarah Michelle Gellar is also quite good in a role that may shock many of her "Buffy" fans. I wasn't sure she could pull off such a venomous character, but she does. When Kathryn tempts Sebastian with her own body, I fully believed Gellar's conniving performance. The best performance, though, belongs to newcomer Selma Blair (of TV's "Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane"). The first time we see Cecile, she sits gangly on a couch wearing a koala bear T-shirt and a goofy smirk. Under Kathryn's tutelage, she erupts with self-conscious eroticism. Cecile is literally the girl who has her sexual awakening before she's mature enough to understand it. Blair has her work cut out for her with this part, but she sure nails it. Here is an actress to watch.
Cruel Intentions is not as emotionally involving as the John Malkovich/Glenn Close/Michelle Pfeffier version of "Dangerous Liaisons." In fact, it's not really an emotional film at all. Instead, it works on the level of a really good, trashy soap opera - the kind you almost feel guilty about enjoying. Writer/director Roger Kumble gives the movie enough wink-wink humor to let you know his tongue is firmly planted in his cheek (i.e. when Cecile's mother is accused of racism by a young African-American man, she defends herself by saying, "My husband and I donated money to Colin Powell!"). I have to admit that I got caught up in Cruel Intentions. I'm surprised by how much fun I had watching it.
(
out of four)
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