CRUEL INTENTIONS
** (out of 4) - a fair movie
Release Date: March 5, 1999 Starring: Ryan Phillippe, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Reese Witherspoon, Selma Blair, Joshua Jackson, Sean Patrick Thomas, Tara Reid Directed by: Roger Kumble Distributed by: Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Entertainment MPAA Rating: R (strong sexual dialogue, sexual situations involving teens, language, drug use) URL: http://www.execpc.com/~kinnopio/reviews/1999/cruel.htm
Like most teen dramas or comedies, CRUEL INTENTIONS follows an annoying pattern of oversimplification. Reality is suspended indefinitely and imperitively, and all sorts of assumptions are necessary for the movie to make sense. Although this movie fills its time with a plethora of edgy sexual situations and dialogue so as to establish its context firmly in the minds of its adolescent target audience, the latest from director Roger Kumble is all smoke and mirrors. CRUEL INTENTIONS does not deliver on any of its promises, and has little to offer other than an occasionally witty script and some steamy content.
The plot is a bet: step-siblings Kathryn (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Sebastian (Ryan Phillippe) are idle and rich (as in the Upper East Side of Manhattan rich) and without parental supervision over the summer. Upon news that their exclusive prep school is getting a new headmaster and more importantly, a new headmaster's daughter, the foundation for the bet is laid. Then we learn that the daughter in question, Annette (Reese Witherspoon), is a firm believer in abstinence until true love. So Kathryn bets Sebastian, a suave young womanizer, that he can't devirginize Annette; if he succeeds, Sebastian has his way with Kathryn, the only girl he can't seduce, and if he fails Kathryn gets Sebastian's classic Jaguar sportster.
There follows 95 minutes of sexcapades among an elite clique of teenagers in New York City. The movie plays heavily to anticipation, saturating the script with heavily lustful dialogue and providing unlimited footage of foreplay. Kudos to a director that can keep a premise such as this nudity-free, but the lack of skin means this film was far less erotic than it could have been. Instead, the direction comes off as inadaquate.
The acting corps *is* adaquate, but that's not much of a complement considering the limited nature of the roles involved. Sarah Michelle Gellar, best known from TV's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," does not play the temptress to its fullest potential, and often has seemingly mixed motivations -- ruining the possibilities of the character. Phillippe does the job of chief romancer well enough, even managing to evoke some sympathy in the movie's twist of an ending. But he's stoic throughout, giving little reason to feel anything for him. Witherspoon evokes the most emotion as the pretty-in-pink heroine, but the role is too overdone for her to be noteworthy in it. No one has a chance here.
About the only thing that does have a chance is the script, which is unfailingly witty in a straight-faced sense. Although it's almost pathetically dumb when it counts, trite insults fly across the screen with humorous abandon. This allows the audience to achieve some foothold in the lives of the characters. But by and large CRUEL INTENTIONS is an ignorant movie, promising things that cannot be delivered and taking large steps in all the wrong directions.
all contents © 1999 Craig Roush
-- Craig Roush kinnopio@execpc.com -- Kinnopio's Movie Reviews http://www.execpc.com/~kinnopio
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