Cruel Intentions

Reconfiguring the great 18th-century French novel Les liaisons dangereuses as a contemporary teen sex comedy might sound like a bad joke, but writer-director Roger Kumble and his compliant castincluding Ryan Phillippe, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Reese Witherspoon, and Selma Blairmake it a fairly sexy and amusing one. It’s less pretentious than the artier adaptations of the same novel directed by Roger Vadim, Stephen Frears, and Milos Forman, and in some ways comes at least as close as they did to the overall spirit of the original. With Louise Fletcher and Swoosie Kurtz. (JR)

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