Post by joekiddlouischama on Apr 1, 2019 6:47:31 GMT
Mar 30, 2019 11:55:53 GMT @graham said:
The trouble with Cruel Intentions is that the story doesn't really work in a modern setting. Dangerous Liaisons works because in that time, in that culture, a person's whole life could be destroyed by a scandal like having an affair or not being a virgin when you get married. The people are playing with serious fire, and they get seriously burned.In Cruel Intentions they try to update scandalous behaviour to the modern day, but honestly most people are just going to shrug and say "so what". The only thing that is really going to hurt SMG's character is when people find out she's on drugs, but a rich white kid who does cocaine? She'd do a few weeks in rehab, a few dozen hours of community service, make some speeches about how she sinned but now she's found jesus and is saved, and wind up more popular than ever.
I like the film, some, but it just doesn't have the bite of the original because we live in an age when nobody really cares about the stuff these kids are doing.
I am not going to compare Cruel Intentions to Dangerous Liaisons, given that I have only seen the latter once and not since April 1999. But in response to your comments, I would suggest the following:
Yes, the story in Cruel Intentions may not be genuinely dramatic, but the film is, of course, a comedy and a parody. The point of the matter is ironic and gestural, more about a feeling than anything else. The life of the Gellar character may not be ruined, but the sheer act of exposing her hypocrisy and pretentiousness proves cathartic and vaguely vital, both for her classmates and the audience. (And whether she would actually regain her popularity and status is, to me, an open question.)
Thus I would argue that Cruel Intentions works on the level for which the filmmakers intended it. And while the young characters' lives may not actually be in jeopardy courtesy of their actions, those actions and emotions can still feel weighty and delirious for those involved. As a result, the movie manages some poignancy as well.