CHÉRI

Chéri, Stephen Frears, 2009

 

Pfeiffer feels she is losing sex appeal.

HOOK:  Not since Sunset Boulevard has a film (or actress) explored the meaning of a woman’s getting old.

LINE:  “Is there anything more wonderful than a bed all to yourself?”

SINKER: The other five people in the theater were also over sixty.

JOHN: This sad, intelligent film about looking in the mirror and wondering what happened is based on two novels by the celebrated French writer Colette. Initially Michelle Pfeiffer seems rather contemporary when compared to the daguerreotypes of courtesans shown under the beginning titles. But when she takes on her friend’s (Kathy Bates) young son as a lover, she bravely portrays a woman whose life is passing by. The repercussions of this changing relationship (the sly mother promises the son to a wealthy young girl in matrimony) create a layered story that is literary, heartbreaking and timeless.  

GO GO GO GO (4 GOs out of four)

SPANKY: Well, I found it difficult to grasp the appeal of either the Pfeifer character for the foppish Rupert Friend or his distress at being separated from her. I understand how Pfeiffer (a sexy actress of the eighties) must seem symbolic to the old farts watching the movie and wondering what happened to them, but I’m less sure that is in the film  than something being read into it. As far as being literary, Masterpiece Theater does a better job of making us feel the emotions of the situation (no matter what the time period). Here I knew what was expected of us, but it just was not delivered by the story or the actors themselves. And this movie gets my vote for worst title. How can you even tell someone you’re going to see a movie called “Chéri” and not be considered a fop yourself?

“TWO PAWS Down” (1 BARK out of four)