Review

Sexual corruption, insidious power games, deceitful duplicity and seductively witty dialogue are some of the unusual ingredients in this sumptuously enticing film. Close stars as the Marquise de Merteuil, an elegantly detached woman who along with her former lover, the similarly cunning Valmont (Malkovich), enters into a wager on whether he can seduce the innocent Pfeiffer. Their amoral sexual sport entangles them and all who enter their lives as it follows its inevitably destructive course. Close revels in the role of the acrimonious aristocrat, and Malkovich, although cast against type, still captures the dangerously seductive charms of a snake dressed in gentleman's clothing. A special cinematic treat that should entertain the entire spectrum of tastes -- from the romantic to the Machiavellian.