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Dangerous Liaisons Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 28 Reviews)

A Perfect Movie
Dangerous Liaisons has a contemporary resonance with its sharp-edged portrait of the battle of the sexes, its depiction of how boredom can corrupt, and its view of amorality as a destructive force in human relationships. Stephen Frears skillfully presents the cruel and heartless ways in which the two malevolent protagonists manipulate their targets and deceive others around them. Cecile's mother, Valmont's aunt and Merteuil's young paramour. It is chilling to watch Valmont use his imagination to bring down Madame de Tourvel, who wrestles unsuccessfully with her conscience before submitting to him.Maybe it's a little strange to see Keanu Reeves in a movie like this, but he makes the best of his role. Is a movie that you can't afford to miss. Perfect


The Eleventh-Hour Valmont
The period costumes for this movie were sumptuous--I wish I could wear some of the pretty dresses sported by Michelle Pfieffer and Glenn Close!

Anyhoo, the acting is top-notch, from the soon-to-be-corrupted Uma Thurman's Cecile, the moral Michelle Pfieffer's Madame de Tourvel, the sans conscience Glenn Close's Marquise de Merteuil, to the role that would typecast John Malkovich for more than a few movies, his notorious Vicomte de Valmont. (You can see that Malkovich's Osmond in "A Portrait of a Lady" channels the pre-repentant Valmont.) The only slight off-casting was Keanu Reeve's role of music teacher/lover of Cecile and the Marquise. Keanu is great in The Matrix movies and in "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure," but I don't think this role was his best work.

I have read almost half of the novel by Choderlos de Laclos and will one day complete it (I have a very bad habit of reading several books at the same time and of neglecting a book I started to read for many months b/f I pick it up again). There's one scene in the book that was also depicted in the movie that I particularly like. In order to build "brownie points" with Madame de Tourvel, Valmont, knowing full well he was being followed by a servant of Madame de Tourvel, paid the debts of a peasant family who were about to be evicted. In the book (this book is written in epistolary style, that is, the whole book consists of letters characters have written to each other), Valmont admitted to the Marquise that he felt genuine pleasure and was even moved to tears when he helped save this family from ruin. He recognized that "do-gooders" receive a sense of pleasure from their charity, and that this pleasure has its own value---not of the same vein of the pleasure of self-gratification that Valmont usually sought. This scene's brief glimpse of Valmont's "higher self" would later take root in his sincere love for Madame de Tourvel. That a blackguard who's capable of abysmal cruelty can come to love the angelic Madame de Tourvel is sight for sore eyes.
Unfortunately, Valmont wasn't exactly clear about his own feelings until the Marquise spelled them out for him. He had indeed loved the good Madame de Tourvel, and he was attracted to her goodness, a quality not often intact among his other lovers and acquaintances.

Michelle Pfieffer really engaged the audience's sympathies when she broke down after Valmont told her he must end the relationship and that this break was "beyond his control." All of her worst fears about Valmont and the warnings she had received against him seemed to be confirmed. However, Madame de Tourvel was informed before she died that Valmont had indeed loved her and that the time he spent with her was the happiest of his whole life. This aspect of the movie/book is about as far as you can get from cynicism and transcends the other "nasty, decadent" relationships in "Dangerous Liasisons." Valmont's eleventh-hour repentance was beautiful, skillfully enacted by Malkovich b/f his death.

The Marquise was devastated when she learned of Valmont's death. She was booed at a concert after letters of her treachery were circulated (one of Valmont's dying wishes).

On the special features, the actors gave some feedback about their characters. Glenn Close attributed the Marquise's cruelty in part due to the lack of options women had back then. The Marquise was preoccupied with challenging and violating conventions while keeping up the appearance of them. John Malkovich was less sympathetic towards his character and just called Valmont's life a waste. However, his character's change of heart was better late than never.

A successful remake
Having read the original novel, I can really admire the director's execution of the plot, considering that the novel consists entirely of letters. It must be really challenging for the screenplay writer to work off the original text that consists of multiple first person narratives. The screenplay writer and the director did a fine job of covering all the major points in the plot. All the dialogues were recreated seamlessly. The costumes were impeccable. I didn't even mind the actors being American, because they left their American personas behind and entered a world completely unfamiliar to them.

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