the movie Cruel Intentions, inspired by Choderlos de Laclos' novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses...
az-oxford classic edtn -Reviewer: Judy Lind "jlind555" - See all my reviews : Choderlos de Laclos' epistolary novel huh has been made into at least three film versions, but none of them come nearly up to the real thing. Laclos' story of evil and depravity, starring a pair of jaded aristocrats is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, novels of the 18th century 1700s. The anti-hero and anti-heroine of this book, the Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquis de Merteuil, fascinate and repel... Valmont is a depraved Casanova, lay-em-and-leave-em, who has lost count of all the broken hearts and destroyed characters he has left in his wake. The Marquise de Merteuil, married and widowed too young, has combined shrewd intelligence with appalling powers of deception to engage a string of lovers whom she uses and casts off at random. Somehow these two find each other and form an unholy partnership. When the book opens, their affair is already spent, but they have remained friends; and the Marquise is infuriated when she learns she is about to be dumped by her current lover, a rich aristocrat named Gercourt, who is about to marry Cecile de Volanges, the most naive teenager who ever emerged from the protective cocoon of convent education. Her main attraction, for him, is her virginity, and it is this the Marquise wants Valmont to do away with so that Gercourt will find out on his wedding night that he didn't get the innocent virgin he was expecting, but an already corrupted young woman, and will become the laughing stock of Paris.
Seducing and abandoning an innocent girl is an old story to Valmont, but he has more pressing concerns; he is hopelessly in love with a young married woman, Madame de Tourvel, whose virtue seems impregnable. And here he appears as more sympathetic and human than the Marquise; even if he's trying to seduce a married woman, he, at least, is capable of love; something which is beyond the Marquise, who sees other people as nothing more or less than objects to be used or cast aside. It's only when he finds out that Cecile's mother has been telling Madame de Tourvel his scandalous life history that he decides to seduce Cecile, to pay back the mother for messing in his business. At the same time, he perseveres in his pursuit of Madame de Tourvel. But just at the point of victory, the Marquise turns his very strength, his ability to love, into a weakness; she uses it as a weapon against him to make him think his love for Madame de Tourvel is contempible. At this point, we see the real conflict in the book, Valmont against the Marquise. But Valmont, as cynical and jaded as he is, is no match for this lady; her very emotional detachment makes her unassailable. Valmont doesn't have a chance. He's not only destroyed the Madame de Tourvel, he's also destroyed himself. It looks like the Marquise is the sole victor in this combat. But is she? Fatally, the Marquise has forgotten that letters can be dangerous weapons, and she's written a few too many.

...lacks the courage of its convictions. In paraphrasing Dangerous Liaisons for young adults, certain plot points lose impact. Marquise De Merteuil in the book and in previous screen outings is the portrait of regret by story's end, not exactly because her scheming led to Valmont's demise, but because his death meant she had lost her plaything, the outlet for her supreme powers of manipulation--the original story is one of a woman who outwits herself.
...Witherspoon gets by exceedingly well on presence alone.
http://www.filmfreakcentral.net/dvdreviews/cruelpayback.htm

ROGER EBERT / March 5, 1999
Cast & Credits: Kathryn Merteuil: Sarah Michelle Gellar Sebastian Valmont: Ryan Phillippe Annette Hargrove: Reese Witherspoon Cecile Caldwell: Selma Blair
Written And Directed By Roger Kumble. Running Time: 97 Minutes. Rated R (For Strong Sexual Dialogue And Sexual Situations Involving Teens, Language And Drug...)
"Cruel Intentions'' is a modern-day version of ``Dangerous Liaisons,'' with rich kids in a prep school playing roles that were written for jaded French aristocrats in the wicked 1782 novel by Choderlos De Laclos. He created a world of depraved amorality, in which the only goal was to indulge one's selfishness. It's refreshing, after the sponge-brained teenage romances of recent months, to see the movie reflecting that cynicism--up to a point. It crash-lands with an ending of soppy moralizing, but until the end, it's smart and merciless in the tradition of the original story. The plot's Machiavellian emotional strategies remind us of the same story as it was told in Stephen Frears' ``Dangerous Liaisons'' (1988) and Milos Forman's ``Valmont'' (1989), but the much younger actors create the uncanny illusion of a high school production of a grownup play. Are teenagers capable of sexual strategies this devious and sophisticated? I doubt it; few adults are, and even those who qualify may simply lack the energy.
The movie's at its best in the scenes between Gellar and Phillippe, who develop a convincing emotional charge, and whose wickedness seems to work as a sexual stimulant. There's one scene where she persuades him, emotionally and physically, to do what she wants, and we are reminded that slow, subtle eroticism is after all possible in the movies--even though recently it has been replaced by calisthenics.

imdb-Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil .. Glenn Close
Vicomte Sébastien de Valmont.. John Malkovich I remembered that - and Gabi regarding him
Madame Marie de Tourvel .. Michelle Pfeiffer did not remember that!
Cécile de Volanges .. Uma Thurman or-!