WARNING-SPOILERS THROUGHOUT: Valmont is a gorgeous costume drama in the form of Dangerous Liasions and later Cruel Intentions. I liked Valmont in many ways, there was a lot of Beauty visually and the characters are all compelling. Yet, I had one or two problems with the ending and here come the ENDING SPOILERS: This ending just bothered me. It just seemed to lack something. I think flat is the word I'm looking for or to put it another way: it was just sort of THERE.
There isn't a lot of power to the ending, it leaves you just kind of wanting more or something. A good comparison would be Cruel Intentions which had POWER throughout. The ending in Valmont doesn't go with the rest of the movie, it kind of lets you down(I hope I'm kind of making sense here.) For how long the movie is and how closely we get to know the characters, there should have been something more at the end. They say many times, less is more, not in this case. We don't really see how these characters fare, how they are truly FEELING, What happens, We just get a brief glimpse. There is such power to much of what I saw in Valmont, the end is just a letdown.
I also think Meg Tilley was miscast, I adore her from a very obscure film called:The girl on a swing. She's a great actress, she should have played one of the other roles, how about Benning's? (that would have been strange casting I know but it might have worked!) I did love the energy and the back and forth between Benning and Firth, very powerful.
I did enjoy Valmont despite the ending. It is a great period piece with great acting and powerful moments. I liked it but as of right now prefer Cruel Intentions although I would not hesitate to recommend Valmont to all. It was a good movie.
There isn't a lot of power to the ending, it leaves you just kind of wanting more or something. A good comparison would be Cruel Intentions which had POWER throughout. The ending in Valmont doesn't go with the rest of the movie, it kind of lets you down(I hope I'm kind of making sense here.) For how long the movie is and how closely we get to know the characters, there should have been something more at the end. They say many times, less is more, not in this case. We don't really see how these characters fare, how they are truly FEELING, What happens, We just get a brief glimpse. There is such power to much of what I saw in Valmont, the end is just a letdown.
I also think Meg Tilley was miscast, I adore her from a very obscure film called:The girl on a swing. She's a great actress, she should have played one of the other roles, how about Benning's? (that would have been strange casting I know but it might have worked!) I did love the energy and the back and forth between Benning and Firth, very powerful.
I did enjoy Valmont despite the ending. It is a great period piece with great acting and powerful moments. I liked it but as of right now prefer Cruel Intentions although I would not hesitate to recommend Valmont to all. It was a good movie.