"Those who are most deserving of love will never be made happy by it."
-Glenn Close, Dangerous Liaisons (close approximation, anyway)
I gave that some thought. Probably some truth to it. Some people don't end up ever being really happy or fulfilled in a romantic situation. I wonder about myself sometimes.
Of course old Glennie was speaking of women, and basically explaining to a very young and voluptuous Uma Thurman that while men are happy by what they receive from women, women are made happy by what they give. Seems kind of fucked up although I'm sure that's true for a lot of people. Daughters have it rough. We are taught these things very early on, and it's hard to change.
Other than that little contemplation, and the aforementioned voluptuousness of such an alluring actress, there wasn't much redeeming about Dangerous Liaisons. I had never seen it all the way through until now. I realize it was a big deal in the 80s or whatever. And visually it's quite stunning, they did their homework for sure. But it was pretty stupid. John Malkovich is a great actor of course but in this movie he was about as emotive as his co-star Keanu Reeves. Glenn was great as always, but she just didn't have much to work with. The endless exposition, oh my god-- I hate to see good actors being reduced to forcing out a paragraph of dialogue about This Is My Motive and Here Is What I Plan To Do and This Is Why I Plan To Do It. Muaaah-ah.
The casual American accents just seemed so wrong. (Although it would have been worse had they adopted British accents as some American actors are wont to do any time they touch a period piece - *shudder*). Poor Michelle Pfieffer did what she could, although she really never got a chance to develop her own character; she was simply defined by the inane ramblings of two other characters. Didn't this thing win an Oscar for adapted screenplay or something? Jesus. It was terrible.
But, a big fat hallelujah to Netflix! (And thanks to Pooks for hooking me up.) I'm finally on that train. Man. You go there, put in a few pieces of information, click on some titles of movies you've always meant to see but never want to commit to at the video store, and bam, two days later they're sitting in your mailbox. Righteous. I'm thinking the next one will be much more enjoyable, got the 30th Anniversary Edition of Blazing Saddles. Aw yeah.
