Critic Reviews
Cheri (2009) Rank 2 Reviews
Expert Review Summary
based on (95) reviews
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Reviews by Score:
The Age (Australia) (Jake Wilson)
SSG Syndicate (Susan Granger)
Herald Sun (Australia) (Leigh Paatsch)
Reeling Reviews
The screenplay by Christopher Hampton is based on the titular novels by French author, Colette, and this is the weak link in the artistic chain. The dialog often feels stilted and does not ring true and the characters had little substance and dimension. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at Reeling Reviews
The Onion A.V. Club
Overall, Cheri is less like a film than like the experience of sitting in on a picture-book reading in the children's room of the local library. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at The Onion A.V. Club
ViewLondon
That said, Cheri remains a sharply written, emotionally engaging drama with terrific performances from Pfeiffer and Friend. Worth seeing. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at ViewLondon
This is London
It isn't easy to translate the defiantly non-chronological writing of Colette to the screen and Stephen Frears, assisted by the screenplay of Christopher Hampton, hasn't done it with complete success. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at This is London
Total Film
The last time Stephen Frears directed Michelle Pfeiffer in a Christopher Hampton script, the outcome was Dangerous Liaisons: a film that thrust a hot poker up the literary costume drama and somehow made John Malkovich sexy. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at Total Film
Sky Movies
Many years ago old man of British film criticism Barry Norman conducted a squirm in the seat interview with Michelle Pfeiffer, asking her, "What's it like to be so beautiful?" ...read the complete Cheri movie review at Sky Movies
Channel 4 Film
While the cracks have started to show in Michelle Pfeiffer's famous porcelain visage, her acting is tighter than it's ever been. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at Channel 4 Film
Reeling Reviews
As a love letter to the fifty-something Pfeiffer, "Cheri" is a beautiful thing to behold. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at Reeling Reviews
MSNBC
Remember that parable about the kingdom lost because of the war, because of the battle, because of the message, because of the rider, because of the horse, because of the shoe, because of the nail? There's a similar hierarchy of disaster in "Cheri", ...read the complete Cheri movie review at MSNBC
Denver Post (Lisa Kennedy)
St. Paul Pioneer Press (Chris Hewitt (St. Paul))
Getting to see Michelle Pfeiffer in a big role is almost worth sitting though Cheri. But not quite. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at St. Paul Pioneer Press (Chris Hewitt (St. Paul))
Deseret News, Salt Lake City (Jeff Vice)
Frears and Hampton are never able to balance the dramatic and comic elements, and the film feels dour and unpleasant. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at Deseret News, Salt Lake City (Jeff Vice)
Metromix.com
Cheri (Rupert Friend) is a typical 19-year-old slacker-his mother (Kathy Bates) complains about the dark circles under his eyes, his habit of sleeping past noon and the way he constantly nags her for a car. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at Metromix.com
Washington Post
The film itself, though, is all dressed up with nowhere to go. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at Washington Post
Detroit News
That the sum of "Cheri" isn't nearly as impressive as it parts becomes apparent halfway through the movie, when it has been well-established that an aging prostitute (Michelle Pfeiffer) is going to be forced to give up her longtime boy toy (Rupert Friend) ...read the complete Cheri movie review at Detroit News
Saint Paul Pioneer Press
Getting to see Michelle Pfeiffer in a big role is almost worth sitting though Cheri. But not quite. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at Saint Paul Pioneer Press
Toronto Star
By the end, it almost seems as if Frears has wearied of the tale, bringing in the narrator to dispatch Cheri to his fate (an unhappy one) in a few well-modulated sentences. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at Toronto Star
Oregonian
Pfeiffer is lovely but uneven, Bates too campy, Friend a cipher. Stephen Frears, so reliably lively, directs here as if in a fog, with stilted staging and editing and no feel for the passionate heat at the heart of the story. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at Oregonian
Film-Forward
If ever there was a role to be cast based solely on looks, it's Colette's Cheri. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at Film-Forward
New York Times (Manohla Dargis)
Film School Rejects (Robert Levin)
Boston Globe
It takes a while for "Cheri" to limber up and get to the heart of the matter. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at Boston Globe
The Guardian
Stephen Frears and screenwriter Christopher Hampton had a major success in 1988 with Hampton's version of Choderlos de Laclos's 18th-century novel Dangerous Liaisons, and they've combined again for an adaptation of Colette's 1920 novel Cheri, another Fre ...read the complete Cheri movie review at The Guardian
ColeSmithey.com
Stephen Frears's adaptation of two combined Colette novels, never takes hold due to a myopic screenplay by Christopher Hampton, and from a severely misjudged performance from Kathy Bates that threatens to sink the film whenever her distinctly non-British ...read the complete Cheri movie review at ColeSmithey.com
Slant Magazine
Putting aside her fragrant memoirs, Cheri and The Last of Cheri 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. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at Slant Magazine
Little White Lies
It's not that Cheri is a selfish, shallow fop that's the problem - in fact, that's the point, and Hampton and Frears do their best to stick to Colette's unsentimental characterisation and droll gender reversals. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at Little White Lies
Village Voice
'For the first time in my life, I felt morally certain of having written a novel for which I need neither blush nor doubt," Colette said of Cheri, her 1920 novel of the Belle Epoque Parisian demimonde. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at Village Voice
The Sun
THERE are few things in a film The Sneak hates more than a poor little rich boy. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at The Sun
Screenit.com
The following is a brief summary of the content found in this R-rated drama. A handful of religious and colorful phrases are uttered, while sexually related dialogue is present. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at Screenit.com
The Globe and Mail
Screen actresses hoping for a lengthy career should look to specialize in lightweight comedy. Take Sandra Bullock and Julia Roberts, busy romcom queens since the early nineties. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at The Globe and Mail
Combustible Celluloid
Still unquestionably beautiful, Michelle Pfeiffer plays Lea de Lonval, a retired courtesan who embarks upon an unexpected six-year affair with the son of a former colleague (Kathy Bates), a pouty, drawn, spoiled brat, nicknamed "Cheri" (Rupert Friend). ...read the complete Cheri movie review at Combustible Celluloid
Empire Magazine
Scheming rich French women, sex scandals, Michelle Pfeiffer... There's so much about period flick Cheri that promises delicious comparisons with 1988's Dangerous Liaisons. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at Empire Magazine
Time Out
The multi-talented and adaptable director Stephen Frears has produced one of his most dull, airless and conventional films in this Christopher Hampton adaptation of two of Colette's semi-scandalous, Belle-Epoque-set Parisian novels. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at Time Out
Time Out
A little more than 20 years ago, Dangerous Liaisons set a near-camp standard for sparring aristos who draw blood, yet still fall prey to true love and what workplace manuals now call ageism. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at Time Out
The Times of London
It must have seemed like such a great idea: reunite the director, the writer and one of the stars of Dangerous Liaisons for another lavishly costumed exploration of sexual politics and French aristocratic ennui. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at The Times of London
Daily Mirror [UK] (David Edwards)
Michelle Pfeiffer is reunited with director Stephen Frears for the first time since they made Dangerous Liaisons back in 1988.
This may pique your interest but, nostalgia aside, there's little in this period piffle to engage or entertain. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at Daily Mirror [UK] (David Edwards)
One Guy's Opinion
Colette's "Gigi" was twice adapted for the screen-first in 1948, the second time as Vincente Minnelli's Oscar-winning 1958 musical-so it's not surprising that somebody should have decided to take on her two earlier novels about Cheri. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at One Guy's Opinion
Scotsman (Alistair Harkness)
Creative Loafing
The miscast Kathy Bates' incongruous turn (she's about as French as Captain America) provides some unexpected relief in this cinematic flatline. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at Creative Loafing
Kansas City Star
Purportedly a tale of seething emotions, Cheri almost never registers love or anguish. It's banal. ...read the complete Cheri movie review at Kansas City Star
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