Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Contentar Best movie of this year hands down!

Sabah Hensley This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Chrysanthepop Stephen Frears and Michelle Pfeiffer reunite to create an intense period piece called 'Cheri'. Frears's presentation of the courtesan culture in the 1800s is interesting and the captivating visuals, elegant sets and costumes grab the viewer's attention. It's a visual treat to watch thanks to the first rate art direction and cinematography. Frears's attention to detail is remarkable as he subtly demonstrates the contrast between the culture and class of the characters. The focus of 'Cheri' is the relationship between Cheri (Rupert Friend) and Lea (Michelle Pfeiffer). Lea is decades older and a former rival courtesan of Cheri's mother (Kathy Bates). Cheri and Lea fall in love but because of society's norm, their relationship must remain a secret. I liked that Pfeiffer's Lea wasn't a vamp seductress and that she genuinely wants Cheri to do right by his wife except during moments of weakness. Michelle Pfeiffer is spellbinding as she owns the part. I couldn't imagine anyone else do a better Lea. Kathy Bates is just as good as Madame Peloux and Rupert Friend is competent in the title role. Frears has created another winner. 'Cheri' could have easily been a melodramatic soap opera type movie but Frears keeps it subtle and smooth. It might not be everyone's kind of film but it's stunning to look at and captivating.

sandover It is difficult to do justice or condemn this film. From the start it hits a jarring note: cards flying like swift balloons (while the air blows out of them?) of plump fin-de-siecle belles and then the bony Michelle? This is something else than tongue-in-cheek.The design, the palette, the clothes are sumptuous, sometimes stunning. Also, particularly the stage set, is so self-knowingly, amusingly, coldly theatrical. I mention this because in such demi-monde, quasi-moral tales the sets set the tone, either of the narrative, of the allegorizing moral, of the wry, detached humor, or of the quasi-queasy lifelessness.Oh! It is the Belle Epoque - a funnily voiced narrator always intrudes, as if to mock the moral tone of such a proceeding and also to pinpoint the self-mockery of what he narrates - and a courtesan high and slowly retired falls for a so much younger lover, the son of a "colleague", while entertaining a detached air and the illusion that experience can be bemused and amused by passion, having achieved some sort of self mastery.It all proves so misinformed; the couple, after six years on the frothy float of erotic bliss, runs out of the proverbial champagne: we are introduced to the moment of crisis with just enough foregrounding in the beginnings of their liaison, and introduced in a bizarrely appropriate way: Cheri trying on a pearl necklace debates whether he should have it, since it looks so much better on him. It is deliciously epicene the way it is presented, with just the right amount of clueless poutiness by Cheri and strikes an ominous note that in a way is matched only in the end, after a painstaking cinematic, wandering arch. They seem to know they run out of champagne, but they still want to dissolve pearls in it, for the taste and the thrill. The problem with this film is the directorial approach: I am not sure I have grasped what Mr. Frears tries to accomplish after decades of film-making, that much being sure: the film's looks are too sumptuous for them to match the guignol sensibility of Colette's subtle humor. But let's say, leave it as it is, let it be more on the English side (or to the American one with Kathy Bates being as continental as a burger) than on the French one. Mr. Frears is usually portraying women, but his method here fails: an empty face in the end (reminnicent of Glenn Close's at the end of the "Liaisons"), is what it makes it awkward: I do not think Colette invested in any sense of tragic morality. Instead her tone is more mischievous, as suits the French. That does not mean she is not sympathetic to her characters, but rather that it is out of this sensibility's context if one saves or loses face. I would go as far as claim that Colette would not subscribe to the notion that women have a face; it is difficult with such a claim to achieve mischievous entertainment.It is also jarringly funny the fact that Colette and Rupert Friend, courtesy of make-up and wig, look alarmingly alike. Was this a way-too-inside note for Colette's lesbianism? Anyway, as it is, the film's rich cinematography captures the pearly perfection of Cheri's skin-tone, courtesy of Mr. Friend's English complexion.Perhaps one should take the ending titles as a key to how one should watch this film: panels slide one on top of the other; panels of letters evoking amorous ones, panels of tapestry evoking interiors where painful and delicious meetings take place, and screens behind which people get naked and clothed.

whathappensincinema There is something about Michelle Pfeiffer. She just has an indelible star quality that makes her seem born to be an actress. Even more specifically, she seems to have been born to play a character like Lea de Lonval…not because Lea is a glorified prostitute, but because she is a vivacious, vibrant woman who commands the attention of everyone she meets. Likewise, Pfeiffer commands our attention in "Chéri", a delightfully dishy romantic drama that is as entertaining as freshly-shared gossip and as tragic as a tearjerker. Pfeiffer exudes female sexuality as Lea, a courtesan who has amassed great wealth and a small set of friends over her illustrious career. One of her friends is a fellow courtesan, Madame Peloux (Kathy Bates), who is loud, comical, and concerned about the affairs of her handsome son, Chéri (Rupert Friend), who is not innocent, but rather untrained. And thus begins Lea's assigned mission: refine Chéri and return him as a suitable gentleman.Their affair begins as expected, but continues quite unexpectedly, with them falling in love and devoting years to each other. Lea is twenty-four years older than him and, though a sexual relationship is allowed and even encouraged by his mother, anything beyond that is strictly forbidden by society. Slightly reminiscent of William Shakespeare's pair of star-crossed lovers, Lea and Chéri know that they can never be together, but their love is impossible to restrain. That is until Madame Peloux arranges a marriage between Chéri and a pleasant enough young woman, thus sealing the end of any chance, however slim, they ever had of creating a life together. Lea realizes the searing loss that this arrangement brings immediately, but it takes Chéri, often too blinded by his own childish self-serving nature, much longer to realize…and, in a world populated by such people as these, even a little too long can often be just long enough.Please read my full review on my blog: www.whathappensincinema.blogspot.com

Jay Harris The basis of this delight is adapted from the novels by Colette, Colette wrote about courtesans (influential ladies of the evening in times gone by), We all do remember GIGI.In the late 1980's Dangerous Liasons was made into an excellent film, (basically same subject). This award winning movie was written & directed by the same team that created CHERI, Christopher Hampton & Stephen Frears. These 2 talents have many other fine films in there resumes. Michelle Pfeiffer who was in Dangerous Liasons, is the star of Cheri.They created one more fine film.She portrays an older courtesan in love with a much younger man CHERI. Michele is superb in the role, it is possible that she can get an Oscar nomination for it.A newcomer to films Rupert Friend a handsome young man willing to live off an older women.This is until he meets this sweet innocent young lady. Felicity Jones does this role and does it quite well.Cathy Bates is Cheri's domineering mother.This is a hard role to play well & Cathy does well.The period is prior to the start of WW 1; the sets, costumes are excellent.This is a first class film & should be seen by all who like first class movies.Ratings: ***1/2 (out of 4) 94 points (out of 100) IMDb 9 (out of 10)