Don't Pay Hollywood for Fag Jokes
Review of Cruel Intentions (1999)
Seen on 17 February 1999 at the Sony Lincoln Square, preview screening
The prospect of seeing a teenage version of *Dangerous Liaisons* gave me two expectations: crap or pleasant surprise. I viewed the exact opposite of both. Well-produced and the unpleasant surprise of homophobia marketed to America's teens. Just what we need at a time when kids are attacking their openly gay classmates like never before.
To be fair, the movie is not a running fag joke. However, this well-known, oft-filmed tale of the depraved and priviledged idle rich was not enriched by adding fag jokes. The one openly gay character, the campus drug dealer who's also a real flamer, is used to establish the main character's depravity. In this case, it involves blackmailing the closet case football team member so Valmont (Ryan Phillippe) can extort information that helps him deflower Annette (Reese Witherspoon) as part of his bet with his venomous stepsister, Kathryn Merteuil (Sarah Michelle Gellar). If he wins he gets to have sex with Kathryn, or he loses his 1956 Roadster. The closet case is reduced to sniveling and betraying his best friend.
Hollywood, I am sure, thinks it's being twisted. Of course, doing something else, like having Valmont seduce a male classmate in his quest to seduce a female would have been an interesting twist; have him prey sexually and indiscriminately on both sexes equally, without the epithets. But Hollywood is still using gay sex for titillation and not much else.
I am not sure if this is what Choderlos de Laclos (1741-1803) had in mind when he wrote *Les Liasons Dangereuses*. The opening credits indicate that the story was "suggested by" the novel. Within the first half hour, we are hearing "Trevor's a fag," when we learn of a boy not demanding sex from his virgin girlfriend, "could you be more queer?" when Valmont mentions keeping a journal, and "are you a lesbian?" when Annette doesn't swoon when Valmont woos her. Kathryn, the most evil character, is shown kissing the ingenue Cecile (Selma Blair) as part of her scheme. The gay character, Blaine Tuttle (Joshua Jackson, who also starred in the ultra-homophobic Apt Pupil), is a complete stereotype who sits back and literally files his nails while his buddy Valmont blackmails his sex partner with exposure. Some audience members tittered at the utterance "fudgepacker" but were appalled and silent later during a race-baiting scene.
Written and directed by Roger Kumble (rhymes with bumble), this sort of homophobic updating is not needed. He ought to take a lesson from Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven, both of whom have used current sex symbols in popular movies without stooping to fag jokes. (Gellar and Phillippe appeared in Williamson's *I Know What You Did Last Summer*; Williamson's TV series *Dawson's Creek* just had a character come out.)
As stories go, it is faithful to the original: Libidinous evil duo use each other to exact revenge on their enemies and sate their appetite for depravity. The milieu is the prep school set that splits its time between tony townhouses on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and lush-lawned estates out on Long Island. The "no expense spared" box was clearly checked off on the costume and set budget suggestions.
Kathryn has been dumped by Court for the naive Cecile, which is why she wants Valmont to take her virginity. Going after Annette is appealing to him, as he is "sick of sleeping with these insipid Manhattan debutantes." (Who isn't?) Watching these two manipulate all their acquaintences to their own ends is entertaining for a while, and lives up to their soap opera experience (Gellar got her start as Erica Kane's daughter on *All My Children*; Phillippe was daytime's first gay teen, on *One Life to Live*--this was not in the press kit.). Blair, the poor man's Tori Spelling, is very amusing as the clumsy Cecille, and the few adults in the movie (Swoosie Kurtz and Christine Baranski) turn in some of the best performances in this movie. Louise Fletcher (Nurse Ratched of *One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest*) is pretty much wasted as Aunt Helen.
There is almost no reason to pay good money to ever see this film. You can rent *Valmont* or *Dangerous Liaisons*, or even the French-language *Liaisons Dangereuses 1960*. If you are a fan of any of these stars, there are other outlets. Gellar appears on Buffy the Vampire Slayer weekly on the WB; Phillippe has made a few movies (*54*, *Urban Legend*, *Little Boy Blue*) and you can rent those.
There is no reason to pay Hollywood to insult you. In the case of Sony-Columbia-Tristar, with movies like the hateful Apt Pupil, they are doing it repeatedly.
More movie reviews by Seth Bookey, with graphics, can be found at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2679/kino.html
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