Modestly engaging story is enriched by delicious acting to become a good adult alternative to Transformers and Hogwarts this summer.
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06/27/09
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Cheri (2009)
54
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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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Reviews for Cheri
Stellar cast, topnotch director, impressive design%u2014all the components for a rich satisfying movie, but without a compelling story it's somewhat forgettable.
06/26/09
It's hard to believe that the smart Lea would remain interested for six hours, much less six years, with the vapid Chéri.
06/26/09
Top CriticLike the exquisite costumes, the scenery is as gorgeous as most of the cast, providing the perfect backdrop for some unabashed escapism.
06/26/09
Chéri is a sad, intelligent film about coming of age late in life, looking in the mirror and wondering, "What happened?"
06/26/09
A smart and lushly romantic film adaptation of a Colette story of a doomed love.
06/26/09
Top CriticThe film itself, though, is all dressed up with nowhere to go.
06/26/09
Top CriticSex, money and power are at the heart of the story in Cheri. What's not to like?
06/26/09
There just isn't enough beneath the surface in Cheri to justify all the talent on hand.
06/26/09
Doesn't so much get anything wrong; it just fails to go oh so right.
06/26/09
Whereas Liaisons mixed cruelty, wit, sensuality and drama into a deliciously tart frappe, Cheri is pretty, tepid and dull, enlivened only intermittently by drolleries plucked whole from the Colette tales on which it is based.
06/26/09
With nothing truly at risk of being lost, we're left to ask, why are we here?
06/26/09
All the frilly hats, teasingly lit sex and delicious turns of phrases can’t inject this adaptation of Colette’s novel with enough drama to sustain its tight running time.
06/26/09
Chéri is a perfect example of a movie that gets many of the details right and the vibe all wrong.
06/26/09
Top CriticPfeiffer is curiously cold and brittle, while Friend never allows us to feel his character's anguish when he realizes the error of leaving Lea.
06/26/09
Top CriticThis costume drama doesn't have nearly as much bite as [Dangerous Liaisons], though the age reversal of its central romance gives it a certain topicality.
06/26/09
This wonderfully gifted actress, whose beauty has sometimes distracted from her abilities, here makes Cheri something rare and haunting.
06/26/09
Cheri may be too leisurely paced for the Fast & Furious and Terminator Salvation crowd. But if you're in the mood for a warm bath rather than a quick shower, you might find this bittersweet period piece quite moving.
06/26/09
Getting to see Michelle Pfeiffer in a big role is almost worth sitting though Cheri. But not quite.
06/26/09
The miscast Kathy Bates' incongruous turn (she's about as French as Captain America) provides some unexpected relief in this cinematic flatline.
06/26/09
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