Cheri

Colette's Gigi flourished on screen, but this adaptation of her two earlier novels about the handsome young son of an ex-courtesan proves as vapid as the title character himself. Cheri (Rupert Friend) becomes the lover of another former courtesan (Michelle Pfeiffer), an older but still voluptuous woman who pines for him (as he does for her) after his mother (Kathy Bates) arranges a marriage for him with a girl more appropriate in age. The tale could have been a sexy romp, but instead it misfires on virtually all cylinders—both a surprise and a disappointment, since it's the work of screenwriter Christopher Hampton and director Stephen Frears, who collaborated on the wickedly witty Dangerous Liaisons, also featuring Pfeiffer. In Cheri, though, one senses problems from the start, as a narrator sets the turn-of-the-century stage for La Belle Epoque, and then returns periodically to fill in plot gaps or explain the motivations of characters. Using the voiceover as a crutch here only underscores the filmmakers' inability to transform the material into cinematic terms, a fact made abundantly clear by the emotional emptiness at the center of the picture (neither Cheri nor the women in his life are remotely interesting or sympathetic). The void is compounded by wooden, stilted performances from Friend and Pfeiffer, while Bates is so boisterous it feels like she belongs in a different movie. Crying out for a gossamer touch, but receiving a leaden treatment instead, Cheri is not recommended. [Note: DVD extras include a “making-of” featurette (9 min.), deleted scenes (2 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a small extras package for a disappointing film.] (F. Swietek)