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Product Description ------------------- This contemporary version of 'Dangerous Liaisons' stars Sarah Michelle Gellar as the spoiled Kathryn Merteuil and Ryan Phillippe as her step-brother Sebastian Valmont. Bored of the girls who lust after him, Sebastian sets his s on seducing Annette (Reese Witherspoon), the virginal daughter of the school headmaster. However, Kathryn is scheming behind Sebastian's back and soon the sibling's relationship is polluted by deception and trickery, leading to tragic events. .co.uk Review ------------- This modern-day teen update of Les Liaisons Dangereuses suffered at the hands of both critics and movie-goers thanks to its sumptuous ad campaign, which hyped the film as an arch, highly sexual, faux-serious drama (not unlike the successful, O-nominated Dangerous Liaisons ( /gp/search?search-alias=dvd&field-keywords=Dangerous%20Liaisons )). 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 Eurot 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 ( /gp/search?search-alias=dvd&field-keywords=Dangerous%20Liaisons )). 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, .com