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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.
Theatrical Release:Jun 26, 2009 Limited
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
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Frears revels in the painted silks and hothouse flowers of the era ... Friend often seems carved from alabaster... Pfeiffer is ... [t]rue to Colette's vision ... alternately steely and pliable, willing to bend yet unable to break.
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A story that's as fragile as petals dropping from a flower.
Frears and Hampton are never able to balance the dramatic and comic elements, and the film feels dour and unpleasant.
A movie like Cheri needs the time and space of The Age of Innocence. Instead, it's rushed along in an hour and 40 minutes.
Top CriticIt's all about the wicked game of seduction, but there's a distinct unease about Pfeiffer's performance that permeates and dilutes this sophisticated yet poignant concept.
There's no depth to the surface machinations, no sense that the central romance features fully formed individuals connecting on an elemental level.
Lacks the precision and control of this same team's randy vicious Dangerous Liaisons but thanks to the lead actors, it stings and lingers
Thanks to a radiant performance from Michelle Pfeiffer, 'Chéri' occasionally overcomes a storyline that never quite develops momentum.
It's the kind of refined, delicate acting Pfeiffer does so well, and it's a further reminder of how much we've missed her since she's been away.
Top CriticIf I conclude that the film is ultimately a touch on the trivial side, I do not believe that I am accusing it of anything that the filmmakers didn't intend it to be.
I had to drag David kicking and screaming to see this film. What he doesn't understand is that I find films such as "Cheri" lush and sumptuous.
Pfeiffer and Friend are captivating in every scene they share.
Purportedly a tale of seething emotions, Cheri almost never registers love or anguish. It’s banal.
These two lovebirds are playfully mismatched, and that's just why they fall for each other.
Top CriticCheri is a serviceable period piece, but not much more.
If ever there was a role to be cast based solely on looks, it's Colette's Chéri.
Michelle Pfeiffer is quite good, but the script leaves Kathy Bates -- talented as she is -- with a bit of a cartoonish performance.
Where is the passion? Where is the heat?
While Chéri occasionally plods along, Pfeiffer and Friend make up for those flaws by creating a passionate sexual chemistry on screen.
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