# Cruel Intentions (1999)

### reviewed by
Jamie Peck

CRUEL INTENTIONS Reviewed by Jamie Peck

Rating: *** (out of ****) Columbia / 1:36 / 1999 / R (language, sexual dialogue/situations, fleeting violence, brief nudity, drugs) Cast: Ryan Phillippe; Sarah Michelle Gellar; Reese Witherspoon; Selma Blair; Christine Baranski; Joshua Jackson; Sean Patrick Thomas; Louise Fletcher; Eric Mabius; Swoosie Kurtz; Tara Reid Director: Roger Kumble Screenplay: Roger Kumble

Fans of "Buffy" might get huffy while watching their beloved Sarah Michelle Gellar maneuver her way through the wickedly entertaining "Cruel Intentions." Gellar's a vamp instead of a vampire slayer here, so anybody expecting that she'll further her role model status with this big-screen lead is going to keel over from the shock. In "Cruel," she lies, connives, manipulates, seduces people of both genders and snorts coke from a crucifix-shaped vial. Imagine a junior version of Sharon Stone's "Basic Instinct" manipulator (only without the icepick murders), and you'll have a good idea of how bad this girl can be.

A contempo update of the malicious goings-on in Choderlos De Laclos' 1782 novel "Les Liaisons Dangereuses," also the basis of the 1987 Glenn Close-John Malkovich dazzler "Dangerous Liaisons," "Cruel Intentions" substitutes the aristocratic France setting with a posh New York boarding school on summer break. It retains the deliciously agenda-minded characters, however, because the teens of today can presumably be as vicious as the patricians of yesteryear. Buying this is a bit of a stretch, if somewhat vital to immerse yourself in the film's warped atmosphere - exaggeration has never been so enjoyable.

Gellar's Kathryn and stepbrother Sebastian (Ryan Phillippe, her co-star previously in "I Know What You Did Last Summer") are so bored with their very blue-blooded existence that they've taken it upon themselves to bring down everyone who crosses them - and even a few who haven't. Kathryn's current project concerns sexually soiling the naive new girlfriend (Selma Blair, from TV's "Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane") of her ex-squeeze, a task Sebastian isn't up to because it's far too easy for his extensive debauching talents. Oh, well. Guess she'll just have to initiate the corruption herself.

He, meanwhile, is far more taken with the headmaster's daughter ("Pleasantville"'s Reese Witherspoon), mostly because she wrote an article for "Seventeen" about her bold (well, for this day and age) decision to stay abstinent until marriage. Sebastian and Kathryn, then, see this as an opportunity for a little pseudo-incestuous wager over whether or not he can rip her of her innocence: If Kathryn wins, she gets his hot 1956 Jag. If he wins, he gets her - in the Biblical sense. "I'll let you put it _anywhere_," Kathryn not-quite-demurely purrs, which pretty much cements the deal for Sebastian.

"Cruel Intentions" eventually covers some iffy terrain when real-life couple Phillippe and Witherspoon actually warm to each other after initially rocky introductions; his charismatic but necessarily stone-cold portrayal makes their rushed courtship a little hard to totally buy, while it's difficult to comprehend why someone so smart and determined as she could ever fall for a smooth operator like him. If this were the only storyline, "Intentions" would be in trouble. But it's not - the subplots have subplots, which, in turn, have subplots still (some of them iffy as well). It's a complex tale, but one in which even the corners are dressed with delicious trappings.

Gellar's icy hauteur is chief among them, but she's got some serious competition from WB network co-actress Blair. The latter steals the movie with her giddily self-depreciating demeanor, and gets to share a racy scene with Gellar destined to go down as an audience favorite - at least for the males. Witherspoon is fine, too, wisely making her part's lifestyle choice neither sanctimonious nor self-congratulatory. And director/writer Roger Kumble hardly misses a beat as far as the smirky tone is concerned, from the opening sequences of one-upmanship to the guaranteed closing comeuppance.

Kumble is also successful with style and locale. The sumptuous production design - posh bedrooms, blush poolsides - is as sensual as any of the lead performers, the cinematography crisp and darkly colorful, and the subdued rock soundtrack - available, ironically, on Virgin Records - only furthers "Cruel Intentions" satiny ambience. (The score, however, just isn't on par, with some annoying techno loop constantly in the background.) Nothing, however, overpowers the games these people play, nasty and naughty though they may be. For a movie with its intentions mostly in the right place, "Intentions" is cruel but cool.

© 1999 Jamie Peck E-mail: jpeck1@gl.umbc.edu Visit The Reel Deal Online: http://www.gl.umbc.edu/~jpeck1/ "‘20 Dates' tells the story of Myles Berkowitz, a man who wants to make a film, and to fall in love. These areas are his ‘two greatest failures, professional and personal,' so he decides to make a film about going out on 20 dates. By the film's end, he has won the love of the lovely Elisabeth - maybe - but his professional life is obviously still a failure." -Roger Ebert on "20 Dates"

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