Cruel Intentions

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Cruel Intentions
Cruel intentions ver1.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Roger Kumble
Produced by Neal H. Moritz
Screenplay by Roger Kumble
Based on Les Liaisons dangereuses
by Choderlos de Laclos
Starring Sarah Michelle Gellar
Ryan Phillippe
Reese Witherspoon
Selma Blair
Music by Edward Shearmur
Cinematography Theo van de Sande
Edited by Jeff Freeman
Production
company
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release dates
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  • March 5, 1999 (1999-03-05)
Running time
97 minutes
Country United States
Language English
French
Budget $10.5 million[1]
Box office $75.9 million[1]

Cruel Intentions is a 1999 American drama film starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon, and Selma Blair. The film is an adaptation of Les Liaisons dangereuses, written by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos in 1782, but set among wealthy teenagers attending high school in modern New York City.

The film started as an independent film with a small budget, and was later picked up by Columbia Pictures. It was released on March 5, 1999 to mixed critical reviews, but was a box office success, earning $75 million worldwide. It was followed by two direct-to-video films: a prequel, Cruel Intentions 2, and a sequel, Cruel Intentions 3.

Plot

In an upscale New York City mansion, wealthy and popular Kathryn Merteuil (Gellar) is discussing her prep school with Mrs. Caldwell (Christine Baranski) and Caldwell's daughter Cecile (Selma Blair). Kathryn promises Mrs. Caldwell that she will look out for the sheltered and naive Cecile. Sebastian (Phillippe) enters and Mrs. Caldwell reacts to him coldly and leaves with Cecile. Kathryn reveals that her real intention is to use Cecile to take revenge on Court, her ex-lover, who had dumped her for Cecile. Kathryn asks her step-brother Sebastian to seduce Cecile; he refuses as he is planning to seduce virgin Annette Hargrove (Witherspoon), the daughter of their school's headmaster. Annette is a 'paradigm of chastity and virtue' who recently wrote a published essay about saving herself for marriage and has been temporarily staying with Sebastian's aunt. The two make a wager: If Kathryn wins, she gets Sebastian's vintage Jaguar XK140; if Sebastian wins, Kathryn will have sex with him. It is mentioned that Sebastian keeps a journal detailing his conquests.

Sebastian's seduction of Annette fails, as she had already been told of his reputation. He vents to his friend Blaine (Joshua Jackson), who suggests that the informant might be Annette's ex-boyfriend and closeted jock Greg (Eric Mabius). Blaine reveals to Sebastian that Greg tried to make a pass at him and uses that to seduce him. Sebastian confronts Greg with photographic evidence of his homosexuality, he denies warning Annette. Greg agrees to find out who did, and Sebastian also orders him to laud Sebastian as misunderstood. Later, Greg gushes about Sebastian to Annette and discovers that the culprit is Cecile's mother, Mrs. Caldwell. Wanting revenge on the Caldwells, Sebastian tells Kathryn he will now seduce Cecile.

Cecile's music teacher, Ronald Clifford (Sean Patrick Thomas) is in love with her. Cecile confesses this to Kathryn. Kathryn tells Cecile's mother about Ronald and Cecile's romance and Mrs. Caldwell intervenes in her daughter's relationship. Sebastian, in turn, calls Cecile to his house, ostensibly to give her a letter from Ronald. There, he blackmails Cecile and performs oral sex on her. The next day, Cecile confides in Kathryn, who advises her to learn from Sebastian so that she can make Ronald happy in bed.

Sebastian falls in love with Annette, who returns his feelings but still resists him. Sebastian calls her a hypocrite because she claims to be waiting for her one true love, but when her one true love chooses to love her back, she resists. She relents, but Sebastian refuses her, confused about his feelings colliding with his stolid sexuality. Annette flees to the estate of her friend's parents. Sebastian tracks her down, professes his love, and makes love to her. As he has won the bet, Kathryn offers herself to Sebastian the next day, but he refuses; he now only wants Annette. Kathryn taunts him and threatens to ruin Annette's reputation, so Sebastian pretends indifference to Annette and coldly breaks up with her.

After Sebastian tells Kathryn that he has broken up with Annette and arranged for Cecile and Ronald to be together, Kathryn reveals that she has known all along that he was truly in love with Annette and manipulated him into giving her up. Sebastian angrily dismisses Kathryn, saying he no longer wants her, and she then rejects him. Sebastian leaves, and Kathryn calls Ronald to (falsely) inform him that Sebastian hit her. Sebastian confronts Annette, but she refuses his apologies; he sends her his journal, in which he has detailed all of Kathryn's manipulative schemes as well as their bet, and written the true feelings he had for Annette all along. When Sebastian starts heading home, Ronald confronts him on the street, and a fight ensues. Annette runs out and tries to stop it, but is thrown into the way of traffic. Sebastian pushes her to safety, and is hit by a cab. Before he dies, Sebastian and Annette profess their love for each other. Watching this, Ronald discovers that Kathryn lied to him about Sebastian with intent on using him to kill her step-brother, and leaves the scene to notify the police.

At Sebastian's funeral, Cecile distributes copies of Sebastian's journal, made into a book by Annette, titled "Cruel Intentions". Kathryn is humiliated and rejected by her former friends, and her reputation is ruined when the drugs hidden in her rosary are discovered. Annette drives away in Sebastian's car with his journal at her side as fond memories of Sebastian play through her head.[2]

Cast

Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 49%, based on reviews from 78 critics, with an average score of 5.3/10; the site's consensus stating: "Even in a slick package and an attractive cast, the movie succumbs to bad acting and a bad script."[3] Metacritic gave the film an average score of 56% based on reviews from 24 critics.[4] However, the film has gained somewhat of a cult following and is considered to be one of the first films to confront teenage sexuality and sexual manipulation[citation needed]. Charles Taylor of Salon.com described the film as "The dirtiest-minded American movie in recent memory - and an honestly corrupt entertaining picture is never anything to sneeze at."[5] Stephen Holden The New York Times stated, "You have the queasy sense that the whole thing is just an elaborate stunt, and in this case an exploitative one."[6] Despite this, Roger Ebert—a noted film critic for The Chicago Sun Times—praised the film and gave the film three out of four stars. He stated that it was "smart and merciless in the tradition of the original story".[7]

Cruel Intentions was a commercial success. The film grossed $13,020,565 in its opening weekend, ranking #2 behind Analyze This; released in 2,312 theaters, the movie raked in $75,902,208 worldwide.[1]

Awards

The film received the following awards and nominations:

Year Ceremony Category Result
2000 Blockbuster Entertainment Awards Favorite Supporting Actress (Reese Witherspoon) Won
Golden Slate Awards Best Original Score Won
Best Actress in a Leading Role (Sarah Michelle Gellar) Nominated
Best Movie Nominated
Best Movie Soundtrack Won
Best Teen Movie Nominated
MTV Movie Awards Best Female Performance (Sarah Michelle Gellar) Won
Best Kiss (Sarah Michelle Gellar, Selma Blair) Won
Best Male Performance (Ryan Phillippe) Nominated
Best Villain (Sarah Michelle Gellar) Nominated
Teen Choice Awards Best Film – Drama Won
Best Actor (Ryan Phillippe) Nominated
Best Actress (Reese Witherspoon) Nominated
Sexiest Love Scene (Reese Witherspoon, Ryan Phillippe) Nominated

Soundtrack

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The Cruel Intentions soundtrack is a compilation soundtrack released on March 9, 1999 by Arista/Virgin Records. It reached number 60 on the Billboard chart.[citation needed]

The lead track for the film was "Bitter Sweet Symphony" by rock band The Verve.

Sequels

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The film received two direct-to-video sequels, Cruel Intentions 2 in 2000 and Cruel Intentions 3 in 2004. Written and directed by Roger Kumble, the former was assembled from Manchester Prep, a scrapped prequel series by FOX, of which three episodes had been filmed. It features younger versions of the characters of Valmont and Merteuil, played by Robin Dunne and Amy Adams. The latter sequel was directed by Scott Ziehl and features a different cast of characters.

NBC announced in October 2015 that they had picked up a pilot for a continuation of the film storyline. The pilot was to be written by Kumble and the creators of Cruel Intentions: The Musical, Jordan Ross and Lindsey Rosin, with Sebastian Valmont and Annette Hardgrove's son being the main character.[citation needed]

References

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  3. "Cruel Intentions". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2011-06-30.
  4. "Cruel Intentions Reviews, Ratings, Credits". Metacritic. Retrieved 2011-06-30.
  5. Taylor, Charles. (1999-03-05). "Cruel Intentions". Salon.com. Retrieved 2014-06-14.
  6. Holden, Stephen. (1999-03-05). "'Cruel Intentions': Back to Their Old Tricks, but a Whole Lot Younger". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-06-30.
  7. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links