Cruel Intentions: Review By moviegeek

Cruel Intentions is a very straightforward movie about rather squeamish topics. In its unashamed approach, the movie produces an odd, evil charm.

The movie is about Sebastian (Ryan Phillippe), who, along with his stepsister, Kathryn (Sarah Michelle Gellar), play fake sexual games with naive persons. The stakes have been raised now in a bet between the two. Sebastian must seduce a virtuous rich girl (Reese Witherspoon) or he will lose his prized car to his sister. If he manages the feat, however, he will get his hands on the one girl he never could--twistedly enough, Kathryn.

Cruel Intentions has an intriguing premise. The sexuality in the movie is very blatant. Nothing is just hinted at. We always are aware of underlying motives going on. While that may seem to take the surprise out of the movie, I was actually waiting for the movie to back off in a sense or become more tame. But it didn't. And for that, bravo.

The actors here are all talented. Sarah Michelle Gellar is brilliantly twisted. She is a captivating screen presence and arouses the sexual tension. Reese Witherspoon (one of my favorites, if not the absolute, among actresses) is solid in her role of an impressionable teen. Her performance is really the only heart in the movie, and it goes a long ways. Ryan Phillippe, however, seems oddly miscast. In a role that, I think, needs more power and poise, he gives a rather fuddy-duddy, almost wholesome, performance, whereas he should have gone more over-the-top like Gellar. I suppose he helps mix it up a bit, but he is a tad bland.

One thing confused me in the movie. I can understand why the super naive girls fall for Sebastian, but Witherspoon's character can stand on her own two feet. She has a backbone, she has morals. She publicly tells of her virtues in remaining a virgin. But when Sebastian comes along, she becomes weak. Why? NO CLUE! Sebastian does nothing romantic in the movie to threaten a girl of this strong upstandingness.

But wheres the fun if she is a rock? Cruel Intentions is mischievously playful. It toys with ideas and scenarios that will either embarrass, engross, or arouse you. When I mentioned how straightforward the movie is, don't take that to mean this movie is graphic. It isn't. Everything that is so sexual in the movie is usually left to the mind as the actors and screenplay flirt with the material.

Cruel Intentions is never boring. It's light in pacing and heavy in concept. It falls short on a number of degrees and works it way to, what I found to be, a rather pitiful ending. But in spirit and wit, the movie is an undeniably pleasing, twisted tale.