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Reviews Counted:116
Fresh:63
Rotten:53
Average Rating:5.7/10
Consensus: A too-short script and a romance lacking in heat detracts from an otherwise haughty charmer.
Australian Theatrical Release:
Jul 23, 2009 Wide
US Box Office: $2,643,292
Synopsis: Stephen Frears, director of THE QUEEN and HIGH FIDELITY, continues to demonstrate his genre-defying talent with this adaptation of a Colette novel. Set in Paris in the years before World War I,... [More]
Starring: Michelle Pfeiffer, Kathy Bates, Rupert Friend, Felicity Jones
Director: Stephen Frears
The movie speaks to issues of traditional desirability and dignity, specifically to the point in a woman's life when she either makes decisions about how well those two qualities can exist together or has them made for her.
By the end, it almost seems as if Frears has wearied of the tale, bringing in the narrator to dispatch Chéri to his fate (an unhappy one) in a few well-modulated sentences.
Cheri, like the character, is an entertaining bauble without much on its mind.
Top CriticThe movie bogs down by going nowhere other than inside its characters, who are intensely passionate but of an era more curious than emotionally relevant.
Top CriticPfeiffer unfortunately has to share the screen with Rupert Friend, whose Cheri is a callow cad who needs nothing so much as a good slap...the movie suffers as a result.
Parental Content Review
On the page the narrator's tone is clearer than it is on-screen, where images dominate dialogue.
[Pfeiffer's] latest film, Cheri, finds her at the height of her ability, in a role worthy of her maturity and emotional intelligence.
In Chéri you see the frailty and the strength, yet you rarely experience either with the depth of feeling you might because of the palpable uneasiness surrounding her performance.
Top CriticLively, clever and beautiful in all ways, from its diverse cast to its period Parisian setting, Chéri is a worthy adaptation of the 1920 novel by French novelist Colette.
Chéri really doesn't work because its central love story lacks dramatic force or even enough fun scenes to keep us going.
Chéri should have swept the audience off their feet and carried them to the bedroom... but instead teases them with a whiff of perfume and a flirtatious wink.
A cold fish. It just lies there, too lethargic to be funny and too timid to be sexy, but not deep enough for any real drama.
If the movie were better -- less swoony, more relentless -- it might be unbearable to watch. As it is, Cheri touches on the insecure egotism of courtesans and movie stars with a knowing firmness.
...a good one for fans of period movies and Stephen Frears but left me less than satisfied.
...keeps one at arm's length, the subject handled with a light touch that keeps the emotions it should evoke at bay.
Chéri is far from dull, thanks in particular to Pfeiffer’s languorously nuanced performance as a striking beauty whose dalliance with a boy first flatters her, then makes her feel her age and the emptiness of her fiercely independent life.
The movie looks beautiful but the story suffers, largely because the bond between Cheri and Lea is never particularly credible or compelling.
Cheri is an engaging romantic melodrama that provides an authentic sense of time and place.
The success of Stephen Frears’ film Chéri begins with its casting.
Top Critic
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