Cruel Intentions

Personally, i have never been much a movie buff. But, im starting to get that movie addiction thing going on right now.

I just finished watching Cruel Intentions, and i must say it blew me away.It explores the very very dark side in all of us. The hedonistic, the inner beast freud must have been talking about in his books.

To make the synopsis brief, its a story of how brother and sister have a wager on whether the brother could seduce another girl before college starts. its set in new york circa 1990. the themes explored were mostly love, manipulation, deceit and seduction. im guessing this movie was probably the idea behind the tv show gossip girl.

The central was mostly about love and its many forms
The brother Sebastian Velmont is a sort Barney Stinson or Alfie Elkins archetype. All of them have the same similar traits, charming, handsome and most important of all, this convoluted level of morality.It isn't a surprise that all of them also have the same flaw, women.They keep seducing one woman after another, showing no remorse and continue doing so, which further makes you question

1) is seduction = love
I think it is old wisdom to perceive love as a one dimensional thing . Love can be represented in many ways, men and women today buy Blackberries, BMW and expensive Gucci/ Rolex watches to give to their significant others, however does this mean that they love their significant other ?, or are these people replacing love with other material things ?. The premise would sound like this

B thinks she is not appreciated by A
A buys B an expensive watch
Because its expensive, B considers the act of buying the watch as an act of love
B reciprocates love to A

So its this material thing keeping the love going on between one another.

Which leads to the 2nd question

Shouldn't love be unconditional in nature ?

This was a question that was answered in the movie

Through the movie we can see a relationship is developing between Sebastian and Annete. Annete was the conquest and Sebastian was suppose to just seduce her. In the end, he ended up loving her. This love was finally proven at the end where
Sebastian bravely pushed Annete out from an oncoming taxi, sacrificing himself for her.So in the end, this sort of hedonistic ,false love grew to become unconditional true love.

All in all, Good won

I can't get Bitter Sweet Symphony out of my head now.