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CRUEL INTENTIONS (DVD) |
| It is well known that I do not in general like frock films. For that
reason I have never seen Dangerous Liaisons. Also I hate John Malkovitch,
I can’t tell you why it’s just one of those things. Anyway I do like
Sarah Michelle Gellar, in an avuncular and wholly healthy manner of
course, and so I had to watch this film on DVD. It is, as you know, an
updating of aforementioned D Liaisons. For all I know D Liaisons was a
very good film and indeed Warrior Mouse tells me that it was though I don’t
know if she can be trusted in the matter of frock film criticism. On the
other hand I can reliably tell you that Cruel Intentions is not very good.
Because the film has been out for so long I have read comments on SMG’s performance that range from praising her abilities through to saying she is out of her depth completely. I think she tries hard but she has no chance of succeeding with this material. Ryan Philippe also tries hard and is more successful. I actually found his character almost believable and he clearly has a great future. Reese Whitherspoon did absolutely nothing for me and I think she was miscast. Selma Blair was completely outstanding and I can feel that familiar avuncular tenderness creeping up on me again as I think of her. To the material. This has to be one of the most appallingly written scripts I have come across in a long time. It was stilted and contrived and whilst older actors might just have got away with it, the dialogue was completely wrong for this set of young and very talented actors. If you modernise the setting then I believe you have to modernise the dialogue or at the very least give it enough idiomatic spin to sound right for the characters. If you’ve ever watched Buffy then you know how it’s done. It is always difficult to divorce actors from long-running TV roles but this story really cries out for the Buffy treatment and I just wish Joss Whedon had been given the job of writing it. (As an aside I recently watched Alien Resurrection again and came to the conclusion that one of its biggest problems was that Whedon couldn’t write so effectively for older actors). The overall problem is simply that you never believe in any of these characters or their actions and motivations. I believe that it would be perfectly possible to make this film work with better dialogue. Shame. Still it is still worth watching for SMG and Selma Blair anytime. DVD-Specific Features: I couldn’t be arsed with the director’s commentary because I just didn’t care anymore but it is there if you want it. There is the usual featurette which is not very illuminating and a couple of naff music videos. The deleted scenes are quite interesting and I couldn’t help feeling they would have been better left in the finished product. The picture quality is excellent but the 5.1 surround sound is disappointing. This is not an effects movie but even so, very little use of the rear speakers was in evidence and the music soundtrack, which is quite prominent, was rather muddily rendered. (Review based on a Region 2 disc.) |