Review of Valmont (1989) by Reginald R — 11 Mar 2005

Been too busy as of late for much movie watching. But I did have school off yesterday.

[b]MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO.

[/b]Good stuff. Love the dreaminess of it all. I guess its inevitable to compare River Phoenix to James Dean, but that really was on my mind much of the time.

[b]QUILLS.

[/b]Finally got around to watching it. Mostly to see Joaquin Phoenix, if we want to be completely honest here. Geoffrey Rush never ceases to amaze me, he's definitely one of the best actors around today.

[b]VALMONT.

[/b]I saw DANGEROUS LIASIONS a few months ago and I suppose they are another inevitable comparison. I prefer the casting of this film - I much prefer Annette Bening to Glenn Close and Colin Firth to John Malkovich. But I don't think VALMONT really captured the vileness of all the characters. I kept waiting for them to appear wicked and they never really did. And I was somewhat surprised at the casting of a very young Fairuza Balk as the young ingenue - perhaps I've seen THE CRAFT too many times to buy her portrayal as an innocent young girl.