I normally don't mind Selma Blair, but geez! Maybe it's how the director told her to play it, but she comes across as mentally challenged instead of naïve. It's the only thing that takes me out of the movie every time I watch it.
AVADA KEDAVRA!!!
Same here. What does being a virgin have to do with acting like a g*dd@mn spastic all the time? She had no awareness of her surroundings and was clueless about everything.
That's why I like Annette - she was smart, sophisticated and considerate. She just happened to be a virgin, but that had nothing to do with her social skills.
Yeah, they wrote Cecile like she was 8 years old, instead of 14 or 15. Even the kids I went to school with 30+ years ago were more aware than that.
shareI was a senior in high school when this came out, and I loved it at the time (sigh). Just recently rewatched it as a thirty-something, and not only was I pretty unimpressed, but was outright annoyed af by Cecile. When she's being "sexy" ... um ... having a seizure is how she feels sexy? I mean, the director should have had her make ridiculous facial expressions, not jump around too quickly for a photograph to be taken. And not knowing what an orgasm is ... come on. Not everyone was HAVING them in high school, but to not even know what one was, it was 1998, not 1778 (and most people have at least masturbated by high school....).
I feel like the character was written for a 10/11 year old, not a 15/16 year old. I guess the sex scenes would have been too distasteful with an actress that young. But dorky, annoying Cecile, stealing Kathryn's older boyfriend yet having no idea what sex was just doesn't compute. Also, there was no chemistry between her and Ronald, so yeah. And Ryan Phillipe came across as very manipulative and selfish to my old eyes (whole "you're a hypocrite for not having sex with me!!!" speech), even after his "change of heart." Gross.
They're coming to get you, Barbara!
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She was so immature and stupid compared to the others. It was as if maybe she were slow.
shareKeep in mind, the screenwriter is trying to stay true to the original novel, which took place in the late 1700s, and Cecile was young and naive.
I don't think Cecile is written stupid so much as she looks stupid because Selma Blair was in her later 20s playing a 15 year-old. If you had a real 15 year-old playing the character, the scenes wouldn't have been funny, they would have been disturbing. Having an older actress in the role serves a purpose of mollifying the seriousness of the situation.
They should have left the story in its own time period.
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