This modern-day teen update of Les Liaisons Dangereuses suffered at the hands of both critics and moviegoers thanks to its sumptuous ad campaign, which hyped the film as an arch, highly sexual, faux-serious drama (not unlike the successful, Oscar-nominated Dangerous Liaisons). In fact, this intermittently successful sudser plays like high comedy for its first two-thirds, as its two evil heroes, rich stepsiblings Kathryn (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Sebastian (Ryan Phillippe), blithely ruin lives and reputations with hearts as black as coal. Kathryn wants revenge on a boyfriend who dumped her, so she befriends his new intended, the gawky Cecile (Selma Blair), and gets Sebastian to deflower the innocent virgin. The meat of the game, though, lies in Sebastian's seduction of good girl Annette (a down-to-earth Reese Witherspoon), who's written a nationally published essay entitled "Why I Choose to Wait." If he fails, Kathryn gets his precious vintage convertible; if he wins, he gets Kathryn--in the sack. When the movie sticks to the merry ruination of Kathryn and Sebastian's pawns, it's highly enjoyable: Gellar in particular is a two-faced manipulator extraordinaire, and Phillippe, usually a black hole, manages some fun as a hipster Eurotrash stud. Most pleasantly surprising of all is Witherspoon, who puts a remarkably self-assured spin on a character usually considered vulnerable and tortured (see Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Liaisons). Unfortunately, writer-director Roger Kumble undermines everything he's built up with a false ending that's true to neither the reconceived characters nor the original story--revenge is a dish best served cold, not cooked up with unnecessary plot twists. --Mark Englehart

Kumble transfers the DANGEROUS LIASONS tale to Manhattan, where Kathryn bets her step-brother Sebastian that he can't deflower the virginal Annette before the school year begins. If he fails to accomplish this task, Kathryn gets his Jaguar Roadster; if he succeeds, he gets Kathryn.

A sexy tale of seduction and betrayal which takes place between two filthy rich stepsiblings and a beautiful headmaster's daughter.

Artist(s):

FEATURE FILM

Director:

Roger Kumble

Producer:

Neal H. Moritz

Composer(s):

Edward Shearmur

Screenwriter:

Roger Kumble

Studio:

4 Front

Editor:

Jeff Freeman

Director of Photography:

Theo Van De Sande

Author:

Choderlos de Laclos

Duration:

93

Weight:

123g

Age Restriction:

15

Subtitles:

Arabic\Czech\Danish\Dutch\English\Finnish\French\German\Greek\Hebrew\Hindi\Hungarian\Icelandic\Itali

Video Encoding:

1.85 Wide Screen\16:9 Wide Screen

Audio Encoding:

Dolby Digital 5.1; Stereo

Release date:

02/05/2005

Colour format:

Colour

Imported Product:

Import

Zone:

Region 2

Rating:

15

"...A fabulous film...[and] in many ways, a remarkable achievement..."

1986-06-27 00:00:00
New York Times

"...A clever reworking of a literary classic..."

1999-06-01 00:00:00
Sight and Sound

Universal Media Disk