"Chéri"

By David Hudson on 06/25/2009

[Updated through 6/27]

"Putting aside her fragrant memoirs, 'Chéri' and 'The Last of Chéri' are probably Colette's finest achievement as a writer; they lucidly express her faith in materialism as well as her convincing belief that sensuality is the highest of all human pursuits." Dan Callahan in Slant: "These two novels about an aging courtesan and her devouring passion for a young pretty boy are many things, but most of all they are French to their core, and the rude English narration that begins Stephen Frears's adaptation of 'Chéri' strikes a jarring note right from the start."

The film "is ostensibly an examination of an aging Michelle Pfeiffer," observes Michael Koresky at indieWIRE. "Pfeiffer's Lea de Lonval still wears her beauty well, yet the lines on her washed-out visage are difficult to ignore. There's no doubt that Pfeiffer is brilliantly cast as this worn-down yet still vital woman, as her face, despite some unignorable tightness about the cheekbones, is beginning to show its age; her impeccable, carved beauty remains, yet in a stricter, more severe, perhaps even more divine tone."

"It's not quite the Class of '88 reunion that it sort of strives to be," writes ST VanAirsdale in Movieline, "but 'Chéri' - the reteaming of 'Dangerous Liaisons' partners Stephen Frears, Christopher Hampton and their extraordinary muse Michelle Pfieffer - does revive the trio's unique, painstaking sophistication for a grown-up audience in need. And just in time, really, though the film's clashes of wills come almost as fast, fierce and protracted as the sprawling robot battles against which it's counterprogrammed in theaters. At least it's only half as long - and you won't have to worry about a sequel."

"Chéri, the most celebrated of Colette's male characters, is a louche 19-year-old millionaire played by Rupert Friend, acting opposite Michelle Pfeiffer as Lea, a courtesan d'un certain âge who has a six-year affair with the insolent androgyne until he's married off," explains Melissa Anderson in the Voice.

"The cold-water comedown after the flush of the affair is intriguing, but with its disconnected tones, 'Chéri' really feels like a film that can't do more than one thing at a time," writes Nicolas Rapold in Time Out New York.

"Fans of 'Dangerous Liaisons' were no doubt hoping to sink their teeth into something similarly racy and gut-wrenching," writes Alonso Duralde for MSNBC, "but the result is a collapsed soufflé made from ingredients that never should have been mixed together in the first place."

"[N]othing about Stephen Frears's first film since 2006's stellar 'The Queen' has the dynamism of cinema," argues Tasha Robinson at the AV Club.

"Both in subject matter and in quality, the Frears filmography is all over the place," writes Benjamin Strong in the L Magazine. "For every bullseye ('My Beautiful Laundrette,' 'The Grifters'), there's a misfire to cancel it out ('Mary Reilly,' 'Hero')." Here, "Frears seems hellbent on defiling his own legacy. Whereas 'Liaisons' made it pretty clear why Robespierre felt compelled to roll out the guillotine, the bourgeois 'Chéri' revels in money, nihilism and ruling class prerogatives."

"There's not much to 'Chéri' (subplots, anyone?) but Frears is savvy enough to toy with his front-loaded iconography, utilizing cinematographer Darius Khondji's harsh natural lighting to turn this entire twisted farce into a meditation on Hollywood's horrific treatment of aging actresses," writes Sean Burns in the Philadelphia Weekly. "He's even got onetime Rolling Stones groupie goddess Anita Pallenberg lording over an opium den and looking like Keith Richards's evil twin."

"It's as if Hollywood execs heard the word 'cougar' on a talk show five years ago and have been frantically scanning libraries ever since, looking for a classic story that'd let them cash in on the zeitgeist," suggests Brendan Kiley in the Stranger.

"Where the filmmakers, in their concerted effort at fostering the illusion that Pfeiffer retains her youth, truly negate their intentions lies in the handiwork of make-up designer Daniel Phillips, who coats Pfeiffer's face with such heavy foundation that it lends her countenance a distinctly unhealthy, pale grey pallor - rather as if she had been embalmed." NP Thompson at the House Next Door: "All this jazz in the press, such as the computer-generated Vanity Fair puff piece proclaiming her 'still smoldering hot' is just wishful publicizing."

"Pfeiffer has grace, class and bite befitting a woman who is paid to love. She is hard on the outside but her rare moments of vulnerability are subtle and striking," finds Molly Eichel in the Philadelphia City Paper.

"Colette, who never resolved the conflict between romantic longing and cold egotism and dramatized the schism as lucidly as anyone, deserved less stiffness and more intimacy, not to mention heat," writes David Edelstein in New York.

"How well I remember that day in 1983 when I walked across Blackfriar's Bridge in London and came upon an obscure little used book shop and inside discovered a set of the works of Colette, small volumes, bound in matching maroon leatherette, with cloth bookmarks." Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times: "I have been in awe of her writing ever since. When Donald Richie, the great authority on Japanese cinema, was moving to a smaller flat in Tokyo and had to perform triage on his library, he gave away Shakespeare, because he felt he had internalized him, but could not bring himself to give away Colette."

Terrence Rafferty calls up Frears for the New York Times.

"While Pfeiffer has long been happily married to a man of her own vintage, she quickly anticipated the annoying questions she'd get from journalists while promoting the film," writes Simon Haupt, introducing his interview for the Globe and Mail. Pfeiffer: "I said to myself, 'Okay, everything's going to be about turning 50, the issues of your fading beauty, and all those questions you hate, hate, hate.'"

Updates, 6/26: "Though the film cannot rightly be characterized as soft - the cruel, often funny verbal barbs invest it with pleasurable prickliness - there's a certain reserve, even hesitancy to [Frears's] direction that in part may have something to do with the conundrum presented by Ms Pfeiffer's casting," writes Manohla Dargis in the NYT. "After decades of pleasuring others, Léa now faces an empty bed, a state of declining affairs that has taken on extra resonance in the story's transposition from page to screen.... There's something poignant about the image of this actress sitting in a pool of sunlight without a smile or trace of visible makeup. But she's trying to reach a character that her director seems intent to keep from her grasp."

"Frears's 'Chéri' is just too English," argues Salon's Stephanie Zacharek.

A suggestion from Time's Mary Pols: "If there is an art house programmer out there who's looking for a double feature, book Woody Allen's latest 'Whatever Works,' in which Larry David hooks up with a 19-year-old girl, right before 'Chéri,' and leave the theater open afterward for a debate on men, women and aging. Sparks should fly."

Erika Abeel talks with Frears for IFC; Bryan Curtis for the Daily Beast.

Updates, 6/27: Rachel Abramowitz talks with Pfeiffer for the Los Angeles Times.

Jenni Miller talks with Frears for Cinematical, where Jeffrey M Anderson writes, "For some reason, 'Chéri' is dead on arrival, 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."

[Photo: "Chéri," Miramax Films, 2009]

Tags: Christopher Hampton, Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Friend, Stephen Frears