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Cruel Intentions (1999)
The intentions were arguably more selfish than
cruel, but who cares about intentions when the end result is as seductive and
sexy as this clever, youth-celebratory remake of
Dangerous
Liaisons. Sarah
Michelle Gellar makes up for Glenn Close's iciness, and matches her eroticism
with seductive delicacy. And while Ryan Phillippe never comes close to John
Malkovich's treacherousness as Vicomte de Valmont, he's got the confidence and
attitude to be a believable seductor of Reese Witherspoon, making that an
arguably more dynamic relationship than Malkovich/Pfeiffer. First-time
writer/director Roger Kumble's work resembles what Baz Luhrmann did with Romeo + Juliet (1996)
in many ways, even if the modernization of
Cruel Intentions is far less about stylistics. Kumble's real genius here
is how he manages to capture the zeitgeist of late 1990s youth culture while at
the same time retaining the meticulousness and patrician spirit of the original
story, something which could (or even should) have come off as ridiculous when
the setting is late 1990s New York. When it works as well and
effortlessly as it does, it's because of the strong focus on basic human needs, virtues and
vices. Anything else that separate the characters in Cruel Intentions
from those in the Stephen Frears' original are just various social constructions.
And let's not forget the soundtrack, which is arguably the best movie soundtrack
of the 1990s Original review: Copyright © 31.03.2000 Fredrik Gunerius Fevang |
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