Review of Chéri (2009) by Lorraine P — 23 Sep 2009

Michelle Pfeiffer was such a beautiful young thing when she first worked with Stephen Frears that the prospect of her portraying a beautiful but not so young woman carries an automatic pleasure. In Dangerous Liaisons, Pfeiffer was the one being chased, being played. In Cheri, she's not doing any chasing but she is doing a lot of playing. She plays a courtesan named Leah, a veteran of the trade who gets into a relationship with a young man. Things go awry when he gets married and Leah begins her decline in the world of seduction.

Cheri could have benefited from a more probing portrayal of this decline but instead, we only get to witness the relationship. Therefore, Cheri is not high drama but rather sharp comedy, of manners and of love. That's enough to keep your interest but it also plods more than it soars. The film is played in minor chord, as if the story won't allow itself to lose control. This is to the detriment of the actors. The film's narration is also distractingly sarcastic, in the voice of a British critique, it sounds almost out of key with the emotions being portrayed. The emotions come most genuine from the lead star, oddly enough not the titular character. Michelle Pfeiffer is a wonder to see again, in a meatier role than what Hollywood allows her to sink her teeth into these days. With her sculpted cheekbones that could cut air, cutting but brittle eyes, soft, luscious voice and measured gestures, the moviestar navigates the film's sexy but limited labyrinths with grace and endearing fragility. In some of the movie's best scenes, we see her building a character whose tragedy the film sadly fails to capture entirely.