Cruel Intentions
クルーエル・インテンションズ
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Dangerous Liaisons in a Manhattan prep school; the 2004 direct-to-video third film is what the Netflix shelf carries.
In Manhattan, Sebastian Valmont, a rich teenager, seduces girls for sport and has grown bored of it. His stepsister, Kathryn Merteuil, popular and admired in public and a schemer in private, wants revenge on her ex-boyfriend Court, who left her for sweet, naive Cecile Caldwell, and asks Sebastian to corrupt Cecile. He has a harder target in mind: Annette Hargrove, the new headmaster's daughter, who has resolved not to have sex until she falls in love. They make a bet. If Sebastian fails to seduce Annette, Kathryn gets his vintage Jaguar; if he succeeds, Kathryn will sleep with him.
Annette has been warned about him. Sebastian blackmails her friend Greg, who is secretly gay, into vouching for him, and when he learns that the warning came from Cecile's mother, he takes on Kathryn's scheme too. Kathryn exposes Cecile's romance with her music teacher, Ronald, and he is fired. A love letter from Ronald is then used to lure Cecile to Sebastian's house, where he sexually coerces her. Kathryn tells Cecile that the way to please Ronald is to sleep around.
Spending time with Annette, Sebastian falls in love; she makes him laugh. When she finally gives in, he turns her down, then goes after her, tells her how he feels, and they sleep together. Kathryn, jealous, convinces him he cannot change, and he breaks Annette's heart by telling her she meant nothing. When he claims his prize, Kathryn laughs at him: he was her real target all along.
Sebastian begs Annette's forgiveness and gives her his journal, which records every scheme, the bet and his love for her. Kathryn tells Ronald that Sebastian slept with Cecile. The two fight in the street, Annette is thrown into the traffic, and Sebastian, pushing her clear, is hit by a taxi. They tell each other they love each other before he dies. At his funeral Kathryn's eulogy plays to an emptying room: outside, Cecile is handing out copies of the journal, exposing Kathryn's manipulations, her promiscuity and her drug use. Annette drives away in Sebastian's car, his journal beside her.
Starring
Sarah Michelle Gellaras Kathryn Merteuil
Sebastian's stepsister, admired in public and a ruthless manipulator in private.
Kathryn Merteuil’s story
Kathryn's ex-boyfriend Court has left her for innocent Cecile Caldwell, so she asks her stepbrother, Sebastian, to corrupt the girl; when he would rather seduce Annette, she makes a bet of it: his Jaguar if he fails, she will sleep with him if he wins. She exposes Cecile's romance with her music teacher, Ronald, and tells Cecile to sleep around. When Sebastian falls in love with Annette, Kathryn persuades him he cannot change, and he breaks Annette's heart; then she refuses his prize and tells him he was her real target all along. For revenge she tells Ronald that Sebastian slept with Cecile, and the fight that follows ends in Sebastian's death. At his funeral the mourners walk out on her eulogy: outside, Cecile is handing out his journal, exposing her schemes, her promiscuity and her drug use. Kathryn weeps.
Ryan Phillippeas Sebastian Valmont
A rich Manhattan teenager who seduces girls for sport, and who falls in love while trying to win a bet.
Sebastian Valmont’s story
Bored with easy conquests, Sebastian picks a harder target: Annette, the new headmaster's daughter, who means to wait for love, and bets his Jaguar against a night with his stepsister, Kathryn. He blackmails Annette's friend Greg, who is secretly gay, into vouching for him, and to punish Cecile's mother for warning Annette, he lures Cecile to his house with a love letter and sexually coerces her. Annette makes him laugh; when she finally gives in he turns her down, then follows her, tells her he loves her, and they sleep together. Kathryn talks him into breaking Annette's heart, then denies him his prize. He gives Annette his journal of everything. When Ronald attacks him in the street, Annette is thrown into the traffic; Sebastian pushes her clear, is hit by a taxi, and dies telling her he loves her.
Reese Witherspoonas Annette Hargrove
The new headmaster's daughter, who has resolved to wait for love, and the target of the bet.
Annette Hargrove’s story
Annette has been warned about Sebastian. Her friend Greg vouches for him, and as they spend time together she falls for him. She resists his kiss, afraid she cannot hold back, but when he calls her a hypocrite she relents, and he is the one who declines. She leaves the next day; he follows her, tells her how he feels, and they sleep together. Soon after, he tells her he only wanted her for sex. She refuses to see him again, and he gives her his journal. Trying to stop his fight with Ronald in the street, she is thrown into the traffic; Sebastian pushes her clear and is hit by a taxi, and they say they love each other before he dies. She drives away in his car, wearing his sunglasses, his journal beside her.
Selma Blairas Cecile Caldwell
A sheltered, naive girl whom Kathryn wants corrupted to get back at her ex-boyfriend.
Sean Patrick Thomasas Ronald Clifford
Cecile's music teacher, who falls for her and loses his job when Kathryn exposes them.
Eric Mabiusas Greg McConnell
Annette's friend, a closeted gay student whom Sebastian blackmails into vouching for him.
Why it matters
Cruel Intentions moves Choderlos de Laclos's Les Liaisons dangereuses from eighteenth-century France to rich teenagers in Manhattan, and the old story fits: young people with nothing to do turn seduction into a sport and other people into stakes. Under the gloss it is about sexual coercion and reputation, about a closeted boy blackmailed with his secret and a naive girl's trust turned against her, and about how differently the same appetite is judged in a young man and a young woman. Sebastian dies redeemed by love; Kathryn is destroyed by exposure. The film grossed $76 million worldwide, came to be regarded as a cult classic, and spawned a prequel, a sequel, a stage musical and a television series. The question it leaves is how much of its cruelty the audience is invited to enjoy before it is punished.