Roger Kumbel’s 1999 film, Cruel Intentions, successfully combines a group of common vices to form an intricate and scandalous story. The movie casts many hip, young stars as a group of elitist prep school students who take games of sex, drugs, and violence to extreme levels. The movie begins as Sebastian Valmont (Ryan Phillippe) makes a bet with his stepsister, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, that he can successfully provoke the headmaster’s daughter and open virgin (Reese Witherspoon) into premarital sex. If Valmont fails he will lose his precious car; but if he succeeds, he will gain the ultimate prize: his stepsister. The story proves to be far denser as the characters are very ruthless in their pursuit of their desires. In a terrific performance, Gellar proves to be the horrific stepsister who will not hesitate to destroy the relationships of anyone around her. In addition, Selma Blair, Joshua Jackson, and Sean Jackson Thomas are cast as characters being manipulated in one huge game of betrayal. Rarely does such a talented group of celebrities come together to make a film and their collaboration on the set is what makes the movie an instant classic. The passionate relationship between Phillippe and Witherspoon is the most genuine portrayal in recent memory. The film unites a variety of teenage issues such as homosexuality, bisexuality (including a kiss between Gellar and Blair that won an MTV award for best kiss), premarital sex, interracial relationships, drug abuse, greed, and jealousy. The defining issue in the movie proves to be love, as the film does a terrific job living up to its tagline: “In the game of seduction, there is only one rule: never fall in love.”
tim
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1 comment:
cruel intentions...up there with the god father and pulp fiction and one flew over the cuckoos nest
hahaha
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