Cruel Intentions
I’ve been itching to revisit Roger Kumble’s “Cruel Intentions” for most of 2018. Part of it is because it’s probably one of my favorite movies of 1999, and that is a film year I’ve had on the brain this year, and part of it is because I thought the final film in Universal’s “Fifty Shades” trilogy could have learned from the way it doesn’t take itself as seriously as it seems in bringing its racy little story to life. Watching Paul Feig’s “A Simple Favor” last week, however, was what finally led me to revisit it, because a lot of that film’s sexy, darkly funny intrigue feels of a piece with Kumble’s film.
I remember the big emphasis, when Sarah Michelle Gellar was asked about why she did Kumble’s modern teen adaptation of “Dangerous Liaisons,” was on how the role gave her a chance to step out of the image she had cultivated on TV’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” to play the devious Kathryn Merteuil here, but it would not surprise me to find a quote where she also pointed to getting back to being in a soapy drama along the lines of her Daytime Emmy-winning role in “All My Children” before she became everyone’s favorite vampire slayer. If you were just familiar with her on “Buffy,” though, that series gave her a few times to play bad that would make you feel like Kathryn isn’t that much of a stretch for her; there’s a reason why fans were so excited by the prospect of her returning to the role for TV a few years ago, and disappointed when it ended up not happening.
If you are familiar with the original story- whether it’s Choderlos de Laclos’s novel, or the previous adaptations for film by Stephen Frears and Milos Forman- the basic bones of “Cruel Intentions” will be familiar. Gellar and Ryan Phillippe star as Kathryn and Sebastian Valmont, respectfully, step siblings who basically run Manchester Prep in New York with a ruthless and cynical eye at power. They resent their parents for being married to one another, but they enjoy setting themselves challenges that will divide and conquer the rich snobs in their orbit. There’s a sexual tension between the two that they feed off of as they do their plotting, but Kathryn keeps Sebastian wanting more. She is someone who will go to lengths to get what she wants, even if that involves using Sebastian’s proud reputation as a womanizer to get back at a star jock who dumped her. In this summer between school years, Sebastian finds his biggest challenge in that front handed to him in Annette Hargrove (Reese Witherspoon), who has vowed celibacy until she finds love, and also happens to be their new headmaster’s daughter. If Sebastian fails in bedding her, Kathryn gets his prized Jaguar; if he succeeds, he gets Kathryn. Game on.
Anyone who knows me will know that this movie’s big sell for me was Sarah Michelle Gellar being sexy and a bad girl- I had just fallen for “Buffy” in the year before this came out- and while I have a soft spot for the other movie she starred in this year (the light romantic comedy, “Simply Irresistible”), this movie will always have a bigger role in feeding the crush I had on Gellar in those years. I mean, seriously, Buffy being a bad girl, and oh yeah, she kisses a girl in this movie! That girl is Selma Blair’s Cecile, a new student to Manchester Kathryn takes under her wing, but has less-than-savory reasons for doing so. Some people have their “Fifty Shades” that gets them hot and bothered; “Cruel Intentions” does that for me, but a big part of why I like it is because it aims for a bit more than just base pleasures, and is more wickedly funny than it gets credit for. Kumble and his cast realize how absurd this story is, and they keep it fun, and understand this isn’t about getting to any deeper themes. Well, for the most part; the relationship between Sebastian and Annette is wonderfully etched, and having Phillippe and Witherspoon (who fell in love in real life on this movie) play this out leads to genuine intimacy and chemistry between the characters that is especially important when Kathryn is playing her games late in the movie. The contrast between Sebastian and Annette together vs. Sebastian and Kathryn together is important to show Sebastian’s evolution in the movie, and while it can feel a bit campy, I suppose, it feels more deliberately moving between soap opera and genuine love story with some dark comedy thrown in, especially when the story involves side characters like Cecile, her cello instructor Ronald (Sean Patrick Thomas), and her mother (played by the great Christine Baranski). If you aren’t keyed into Kumble’s tone right away, I can see why this film’s shifts in tone can be a bit jarring. I’ve always enjoyed it because the story’s through line has always felt clear.
I don’t know if I would say the film ages particularly well- although it doesn’t really have specific references to a time frame, the soundtrack is very much late ’90s teen pop culture, and the film has some homophobic moments that are cringe-worthy- but it remains a quite entertaining piece of late ’90s pop filmmaking, and I think holds up well compared to a lot of films released at this time because it forges its own path into the teen sex film. I never did see either sequel, although I can’t imagine I missed much; after all, the main story here seemed pretty cut and dry in how it unfolded.
