''Cruel Intentions'' is a 1999 American

teen Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the te ...

romantic Romantic may refer to: Genres and eras * The Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries ** Romantic music, of that era ** Romantic poetry, of that era ** Romanticism in science, of that e ...

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

film written and directed by

Roger Kumble Roger Kumble (born May 28, 1966) is an American film director, screenwriter, and playwright. Life and career Kumble was raised in Harrison, New York, and attended Harrison High School. He graduated from Northwestern University in 1988, where he ...

and starring

Sarah Michelle Gellar Sarah Michelle Prinze ( ; born April 14, 1977) is an American actress. After being spotted at the age of four in New York City, she made her screen acting debut in the television film ''An Invasion of Privacy'' (1983). A leading role on the te ...

Ryan Phillippe Matthew Ryan Phillippe (; born September 10, 1974) is an American actor. After appearing as Billy Douglas on the soap opera '' One Life to Live'', he came to fame in the late 1990s with starring roles in films including '' I Know What You Did L ...

Reese Witherspoon Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon (born March 22, 1976) is an American actress and producer. The recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards, she ...

, and

Selma Blair Selma Blair Beitner (born June 23, 1972) is an American actress. She played a number of roles in films and on television before obtaining recognition for her leading role in the film '' Brown's Requiem'' (1998). Her breakthrough came when she s ...

. The film is a modern retelling of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos' 1782 novel ''

Les Liaisons dangereuses ''Les Liaisons dangereuses'' (; English: ''Dangerous Liaisons'') is a French epistolary novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, first published in four volumes by Durand Neveu from March 23, 1782. It is the story of the Marquise de Merteuil and ...

'', set in New York City among rich high schoolers. Initially a smaller-budget

independent film An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the major film studio system, in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies (or, i ...

, it was picked up by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the multi ...

and widely released March 5, 1999. Despite mixed critical reviews, the performances of Gellar, Philippe, and Witherspoon were praised and ''Cruel Intentions'' has since grossed $76 million worldwide. The box office success spawned a prequel in 2000 and sequel in 2004, as well as a jukebox musical in 2015. Since its release the film has become regarded as a

cult classic A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

Plot

In an upscale New York City mansion, wealthy, popular and intelligent teenager Kathryn Merteuil discusses her private school with Mrs. Caldwell and her daughter, Cecile, who will be starting as a Freshman at the school soon. Kathryn promises Mrs. Caldwell that she will look out for the sheltered, naïve Cecile. When Kathryn's stepbrother Sebastian Valmont enters the room, Mrs. Caldwell reacts to him coldly and leaves with Cecile. Kathryn tells Sebastian that she intends to use Cecile to take revenge on her ex-boyfriend Court Reynolds, who dumped her for Cecile. Kathryn enlists Sebastian, a notorious womanizer, to seduce Cecile, thereby ruining her in Court's eyes. Sebastian refuses because he is planning to seduce Annette Hargrove, the virgin daughter of the new Headmaster at their school, who has written an essay which was published by a magazine in support of chastity until marriage. After some negotiation, they agree on a wager: if Sebastian fails to seduce Annette, Kathryn gets Sebastian's vintage

Jaguar XK140 The Jaguar XK140 is a sports car manufactured by Jaguar between 1954 and 1957 as the successor to the XK120. Upgrades included more interior space, improved brakes, rack and pinion steering, increased suspension travel, and telescopic shock a ...

; if he succeeds, Kathryn will have sex with him. Sebastian's first attempt to seduce Annette fails, as she is apparently already aware of his reputation. Sebastian initially suspects Greg, Annette’s friend from Kansas who is a popular football player and closeted homosexual. Sebastian convinces Greg to put in a good word about him to Annette, blackmailing him with a photo of him and Sebastian’s openly gay friend in bed. Sebastian also finds out that Mrs. Caldwell was the one who warned Annette about Sebastian. Sebastian finally agrees to corrupt Cecile as revenge. Meanwhile, Cecile confides in Kathryn about her romance with her music teacher, Ronald Clifford. Kathryn reveals this to Mrs. Caldwell, who orders Cecile to end the relationship, but only because Ronald is black. Sebastian lures Cecile to his house by claiming he has a letter to her from Ronald. He then gets Cecile drunk and blackmails her into allowing him to perform oral sex on her. The next day, Cecile confides in Kathryn, who advises her to be as promiscuous as possible to learn how to please Ronald. Sebastian begins to truly fall in love with Annette, who returns his feelings but is still hesitant. Sebastian calls her a hypocrite for resisting the chance for true love despite claiming that she was waiting for it. Annette finally relents, but Sebastian, confused about his own feelings, now refuses her. Annette flees to the estate of her friend's parents. Sebastian finds her and professes his feelings, and they make love. Kathryn offers herself to Sebastian after he wins the 'bet', but he rejects her, now only wanting Annette. Sebastian informs Kathryn that he was planning to tell Annette the truth, but a jealous and enraged Kathryn warns him that doing so will destroy both his and Annette's reputations. Sebastian lies to Annette, claiming that she was just a conquest and that he has no real feelings for her. Devastated, Annette tells him to leave. Sebastian informs Kathryn that he has broken up with Annette and now wants his reward for winning the bet. Kathryn reveals that he, not Annette, was the true target of her scheme and that she manipulated him into abandoning Annette for her own amusement. She then dismisses him, telling him that she doesn't sleep with "losers". Sebastian tries to contact Annette to confess the truth and beg for a second chance, but she refuses to see him. He gives her his journal, in which he has detailed Kathryn's manipulative schemes, their bet, and his true feelings for Annette. Seeking revenge, Kathryn calls Ronald, claiming that Sebastian hurt her and slept with Cecile. Ronald violently confronts Sebastian, and the ensuing fight migrates to the middle of the street. Annette tries to intervene but is thrown into traffic. Sebastian pushes her to safety but ends up getting hit by a taxi. Sebastian and Annette confess their love for each other before he dies. Ronald witnesses this and leaves angry once he finds out from Annette that Kathryn used him. At Sebastian's funeral, Kathryn delivers a eulogy, which people start leaving midway through. Kathryn rushes outside to find Cecile handing out copies of Sebastian's journal. As the details of her manipulations and drug abuse are made public, Kathryn's reputation is finally destroyed. Feeling guilt over his role in causing Sebastian's death, Ronald writes a detailed confession of how she lied to him about Cecile not being a virgin and her claims about Sebastian hitting her in order to have him killed. It is implied that the disapproving headmaster will expel her from the school, especially after finding cocaine hidden in the cross of her rosary. In the final scene, Annette drives away in Sebastian's car with his journal at her side, recalling their fondest moments together.

Cast

Kathryn Merteuil Kathryn Merteuil is a fictional character who appears in '' Cruel Intentions'' and '' Cruel Intentions 2'', portrayed by actresses Sarah Michelle Gellar and Amy Adams, respectively. Based on the Marquise de Merteuil in Pierre Choderlos de Laclos ...

, based on the Marquise de Merteuil *

as Sebastian Valmont, based on the Vicomte de Valmont *

as Annette Hargrove, based on Madame de Tourvel *

as Cecile Caldwell, based on Cécile Volanges * Louise Fletcher as Helen Rosemond, based on Madame de Rosemonde *

Joshua Jackson Joshua Carter Jackson (born June 11, 1978) is a Canadian-American actor. He is known for his starring role as Charlie Conway in ''Mighty Ducks'', as Pacey Witter in The WB teen drama series ''Dawson's Creek'' (1998–2003), Peter Bishop in the ...

as Blaine Tuttle *

Eric Mabius Eric Harry Timothy Mabius (born April 22, 1971) is an American actor. Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, with a degree in cinema studies. After working in theater productions, Ma ...

as Greg McConnell * Sean Patrick Thomas as Ronald Clifford, based on the Chevalier Danceny *

Swoosie Kurtz Swoosie Kurtz ( ; born September 6, 1944) is an American actress. She is the recipient of an Emmy Award and two Tony Awards. Kurtz made her Broadway debut in the 1975 revival of ''Ah, Wilderness''. She has received five Tony Award nominations, ...

as Dr. Regina Greenbaum (Kurtz notably portrayed Madame de Volanges in the 1988 film version of ''

Dangerous Liaisons ''Dangerous Liaisons'' is a 1988 American period romantic drama film directed by Stephen Frears from a screenplay by Christopher Hampton, based on his 1985 play ''Les liaisons dangereuses'', itself adapted from the 1782 French novel of the s ...

'') *

Christine Baranski Christine Jane Baranski (born May 2, 1952) is an American actress. She is a 15-time Primetime Emmy Award nominee, winning once in 1995 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Maryann Thorpe in the sitcom '' Cybill' ...

as Bunny Caldwell, based on Madame de Volanges * Alaina Reed Hall as Nurse *

Deborah Offner Deborah Offner (born August 7, 1959) is an American actress, songwriter, playwright, and theatre director. Life Offner was born in New York City in 1959. Her father was Mortimer Offner, a photographer, screenwriter, and TV and theatre director. ...

as Mrs. Michalak * Tara Reid as Marci Greenbaum * Hiep Thi Le as Mai-Lee * Herta Ware as Mrs. Sugarman * Drew Snyder as Headmaster Hargrove * Charlie O'Connell as Court Reynolds, based on the Comte de Gercourt * Fred Norris as Meter Maid

Production

One of the filming locations was Old Westbury Gardens in Nassau County, New York, as well as the Harry F. Sinclair House in New York City. In a 2016 interview, Sarah Michelle Gellar revealed that the original title of the movie was to be "Cruel Inventions".

Reception

''Cruel Intentions'' received mixed reviews from critics. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film has an approval score of 54% based on reviews from 114 critics, with an average rating of 5.20/10. The site's consensus states: "This darkly comic drama and its attractive young cast are easy on the eyes, but uneven performances and an uninspired script conspire to foil ''Cruel Intentions''."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

gave the film an average score of 56 out of 100 based on reviews from 24 critics. Charles Taylor of '' Salon.com'' described the film as "The dirtiest-minded American movie in recent memory – and an honestly corrupt entertaining picture is never anything to sneeze at."

Stephen Holden Stephen Holden (born July 18, 1941) is an American writer, poet, and music and film critic. Biography Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963. He worked as a photo editor, staff writer, and eventually be ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' stated, "You have the queasy sense that the whole thing is just an elaborate stunt and, in this case, an exploitative one." Despite this,

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

, a noted film critic for ''

The Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...

,'' praised ''Cruel Intentions'' and gave the film three out of four stars in his review, stating that it was "smart and merciless in the tradition of the original story."

Box office

''Cruel Intentions'' was a commercial success, grossing $13,020,565 in its opening weekend, ranking #2 behind ''

Analyze This ''Analyze This'' is a 1999 American mafia comedy film directed by Harold Ramis, who co-wrote the screenplay with playwright Kenneth Lonergan, and Peter Tolan. The plot follows a crisis-stricken mafioso (Robert De Niro) who solicits the assis ...

''; released in 2,312 theaters, the movie raked in $76.3 worldwide against a $10.5 million budget.

Awards and nominations

Soundtrack

The ''Cruel Intentions'' soundtrack is a compilation soundtrack released on March 9, 1999, by

Arista Arista may refer to: Organizations *Arista Networks, a software defined networking company *Arista Records, an American record label, division of Sony Music **Arista Nashville, a record label specializing in country music *Arista (honor society) ...

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldw ...

. It reached number 60 on the Billboard chart. The lead track for the film was " Bitter Sweet Symphony" by rock band

The Verve The Verve were an English rock band formed in Wigan in 1990 by lead vocalist Richard Ashcroft, guitarist Nick McCabe, bass guitarist Simon Jones and drummer Peter Salisbury. Guitarist and keyboard player Simon Tong later became a member i ...

Subsequent media

Direct-to-video films

'' Cruel Intentions 2'' was released

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy wa ...

in 2001, written and directed by

, assembled from three episodes filmed for ''Manchester Prep,'' a

prequel A prequel is a literary, dramatic or cinematic work whose story precedes that of a previous work, by focusing on events that occur before the original narrative. A prequel is a work that forms part of a backstory to the preceding work. The term ...

series scrapped by

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelv ...

. The story features younger versions of Sebastian Valmont and

played by

Robin Dunne Robin Dunne (born November 19, 1976) is a Canadian actor who has had numerous leading roles in sequels throughout his career, but is perhaps best known for his role as Doctor Will Zimmerman in the science fiction television series ''Sanctuary''. ...

and

Amy Adams Amy Lou Adams (born August 20, 1974) is an American actress. Known for both her comedic and dramatic roles, she has been featured three times in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actresses. She has received various accolades, incl ...

. ''

Cruel Intentions 3 ''Cruel Intentions 3'' is a 2004 American teen drama film directed by Scott Ziehl and released direct-to-video in 2004. Despite its name, the film has almost no relation to the previous films in the series, except for the shared themes and the lea ...

'' followed in 2004, directed by Scott Ziehl, starring Kerr Smith and Kristina Anapau, as Cassidy Merteuil, cousin to Kathryn.

Canceled sequel series

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...

announced in October 2015 that they had picked up a television pilot for a continuation of the film's storyline. The pilot was set seventeen years after the events of the film and sees Bash Casey, son of Sebastian Valmont and Annette Hargrove, discover his late father's journal. Upon discovering this he is thrown into a world of lies, sex and power. The potential series will also see Kathryn Merteuil, Bash's step-aunt, attempt to gain power of Valmont International. In February 2016, Taylor John Smith and

Samantha Logan Samantha Jade Logan (born October 27, 1996) is an American actress. She is best known for her lead role as Olivia Baker in The CW series ''All American'', Nina Jones in the second season of the Netflix series ''13 Reasons Why'', and Tia Steph ...

were cast, with Smith playing the male lead role of Bash Casey, Sebastian Valmont and Annette Hargrove's son. Gellar reached a deal with producers to reprise her role as the female lead, Kathryn Merteuil. In March, Kate Levering was cast to replaces Witherspoon for the role of Annette Hargrove. On October 31, 2016, NBC announced that it had passed on the project and that the series would not go forward.

Planned reboot series

In October 2021, it was announced that a television series

reboot In computing, rebooting is the process by which a running computer system is restarted, either intentionally or unintentionally. Reboots can be either a cold reboot (alternatively known as a hard reboot) in which the power to the system is phys ...

of ''Cruel Intentions'' was in development for IMDb TV (now

Amazon Freevee Amazon Freevee is an American ad-supported video-on-demand (VOD) streaming service owned by Amazon, with original and licensed programming. History Amazon Freevee launched as a free, ad-supported video channel by the Amazon-owned online data ...

Musical

A 1990s jukebox musical by Kumble, Rosin, and Ross, was first staged in 2015. After two runs in Los Angeles and a pop-up engagement in New York, '' Cruel Intentions: The '90s Musical'' made its

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer th ...

debut at the Greenwich Village nightclub Le Poisson Rouge in November 2017 and ran through April 2018. Set to pop and rock hits of the 1990s and songs from the film's soundtrack, the plot follows the manipulations of Sebastian Valmont and Kathryn Merteuil, out to destroy anyone who gets in their way.Lefkowitz, Andy
"Cruel Intentions Musical Extends Off-Broadway Run for Third & Final Time"
Broadway.com, February 20, 2018

References

External links

* * * * * {{Authority control 1999 films 1999 directorial debut films 1999 LGBT-related films 1999 romantic drama films 1990s teen drama films 1990s teen romance films American high school films American romantic drama films American teen drama films American teen LGBT-related films American teen romance films Bisexuality-related films Columbia Pictures films Films about interracial romance Films about narcissism Films about siblings Films about virginity Films about the upper class Films based on French novels Films based on romance novels Films based on works by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos Films directed by Roger Kumble Films produced by Neal H. Moritz Films scored by Edward Shearmur Films set in Manhattan Films shot in Los Angeles Films shot in New York City Films shot in Toronto Incest in film Newmarket films Original Film films Teensploitation Works based on Les Liaisons dangereuses Films with atheism-related themes 1990s English-language films 1990s American films