Spoiler Alert – This post will talk about Cruel Intentions, the 1999 teen movie inspired by Les Liaisons Dangereuses, a novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. It WILL contain spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched this movie with romantic elements but NO ROMANCE ENDING, you might wish to skip this post.
I love the Dangerous Liaisons storyline and I very much enjoyed rewatching this teen-marketed modern (in 1999) retelling of it. It holds up to viewing over a quarter of a decade later and the cast is amazing. We see Ryan Phillippe, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Reese Witherspoon, and Selma Blair when they were babies. (smiles)
I also enjoyed it because of the redemption arc.
Sebastian and his stepsister Kathryn are two of a kind. They’re awful, mean people, and seem to have no redeeming personality traits.
And for much of the movie, they remain awful. They do terrible things.
Until Sebastian falls in love and has a change of heart.
His last act in the movie is sacrificing himself for another person.
This is the only true good thing he is shown to have ever done.
But it redeems himself in the eyes of the other characters and in the eyes of many viewers.
He becomes the hero.
While his stepsister, the person matching him for evil for most of his life, ends the movie as the villain.
This is the power of one selfless act. It can completely shift others’ views of us and of characters.
