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Amazon Sales Rank: 2310
Release Date: 2009-10-20
Publisher: Miramax Films
Type: DVD
Running Time: 92 (minutes)
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
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Stephen Frears… makes thoroughly professional and immensely entertaining stories that pay particular attention to characters, their flaws, emotions and deepest desires. In Cheri, he has another dandy. The chemistry between Pfeiffer and Friend is positively combustible. One feels the hunger in each, the rising physical passion and emotional vulnerability in two people who, if asked, would scorn love as a human weakness.
Darius Khondji’s mood-catching cinematography, Consolata Boyle’s eye-catching costumes and Alan MacDonald’s gorgeous sets are all entertainment in themselves. But the greatest contribution comes from composer Alexandre Desplat whose nostalgic, romantic, melancholy score evokes the period perfectly.
- Kirk Honeycutt, The Hollywood Reporter
Average Rating: 
Review: 2009-11-18
Michelle Pfeiffer is beautiful
This movie reminds me of the song by Cracker, Teen Angst, 'what the world needs now is another folk singer, like I need a hole in the head.' In this case, does the world really need another period piece film?
Michelle Pfeiffer plays a retired prostitute in 1890's France (oh yes the film uses the word courtesan to make it sound better, but we might as well call it like it is) that falls in love with her best friend's 18 or 19 year old son Fred, nicknamed Cheri. They spend six years together during 15 minutes of the film. The rest of the film is all about how much they loved each other but could not be together. Oh the unrequited love story, if it just weren't for society, they could live blissfully together forever.
The cast is interesting. Michelle Pfeiffer is so gorgeous in this film. Nobody has a right to be this beautiful and have such a gorgeous body at 51 years old. The revealing scenes are artfully done. Kathy Bates, to me, was perfectly cast as another retired prostitute, Cheri's mother. Compared to all the other characters in this film, an old man dressed up in drag, an absolutely hideous massive woman, and the other assorted old 'courtesans', she fit in perfectly. Rupert Friend plays Cheri, a skinny long haired young man.
Across the board the acting was horrible. Everyone read their lines. There was very little emotion in anything they said. It is entirely possible the script was the problem. The film was translated from two French novels by Collette. There are phrases in French that work very well, but when translated literally turn into needlessly complex English. At one point Michelle Pfeiffer says something to the effect of; oh one must not do this because one will... A perfectly wonderful phrase in French, using the 'on' noun to mean literally one, but more generally we or us. In English, it becomes a horrible phrase.
Film director, Stephen Frears (High Fidelity), reads the most annoying voice over narration ever used in a film. Every piece of a film should add to the enjoyment or illumination of a film. Music, sound effects, editing, framing, and dialog, when used properly are incredibly powerful. In this case, the voice over story telling added nothing to the film, it mostly detracted. In addition, Frears does not have the most pleasant voice.
The sets are gorgeous. The film does not show much of Paris, although parts do take place there. No this is not a film with gorgeous views of Paris. Mostly the film takes place in the French countryside, but the credits show that it was filmed in Germany. The beach scenes in Biarritz are beautiful. I'm not sure if I watched the same film others have reported, but there were no sumptuous views of Paris and gorgeous Belle Époque scenery. There were some very lovely homes, gardens, and countryside; but not much of Paris at all.
Sadly this film natters on far too long, after 30 minutes of the 90 minute movie I wanted to find the fast forward button (I did resist and suffered through the full 90 minutes). I had absolutely no emotional connection with any of these characters. The dialog annoyed me. The only saving grace was seeing how well the beautiful Michelle Pfeiffer has aged.
Review: 2009-11-14
Forgettable
I was expecting more from this, and I think with better direction and a few casting changes it could have been a decent movie. Michelle Pfieffer is glorious as the older courtesan (Lea) who falls in love with the aimless 19 year old Cheri, son of a rival aging courtesan (played by Kathy Bates). The relationship between Lea and Cheri (Rupert Friend) is never developed properly in the beginning - in fact it feels quite rushed and forced, so you never get a sense of connection between these two from the start. They also have virtually nothing in the way of on-screen chemistry. Rupert Friend turns in a one-dimensional portrait of a dark and brooding Cheri...the other actors, with the exception of Kathy Bates, are instantly forgettable. Shame too because the staging is lovely and this is probably one of Pfieffer's best performances. Overdubbed narration offers entirely unncessary commentary on what's going on in the minds of the characters, and utterly undermines every attempt the film makes to build and maintain a sense of real drama. Don't bother with it.
Review: 2009-10-30
Pfffffttttt!!!!
I don't think the other reviewers listed here saw the same movie as I did. "Cheri" is boring, boring, boring!
As a period piece, it is much more like the cheesy, soft-core productions that came from photographer David Hamilton than quality stuff like Merchant and Ivory.
The plot and the performances practically define the word "ENNUI". In the early scenes, Michelle Pfeiffer and Rupert Friend do such a good job parroting the same accent, that the scenes between them nearly sound like monologues.
It doesn't matter to me that the source material was Colette, by the middle of the movie I was asleep. I kept expecting Mel Brooks to charge onto the screen behind Michelle Pfeiffer, bellowing "CAN'T YOU SEE SHE'S POOPED?!!"
Unless you are in need of a sedative, avoid this movie like the plague.
Review: 2009-10-28
A CLASSIC TALE RETOLD
This movie is about a certain social milieu of the Golden Age of Paris (the early 1900s). It is the Americanization of Colette but it works for a more mainstreamed audience. A more serious adaptation would be NC-17, at least, and the subject matter in this movie never becomes that risqué.
We meet a great beauty nearing the end of her career as a courtesan in Paris. We meet a lot of other aging courtesans as well, one of them the unscrupulous mother of a handsome young man nicknamed Cheri. Everyone knows they are having an affair but it is only too late that the main characters realize that they also fell in love. This story has been told several times and this rendition is very good. I felt the pain of the aging beauty having to let go a much younger love. I felt the aimlessness of Cheri as he leads a pampered life that cannot fulfill him. Yes, it's a classic tragic tale but is it worth watching? If you are a fan of star-crossed lovers or period pieces - absolutely!
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Amazon List Price: $29.99
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