If you like counter-programming during the summer movie season, then tip your hat to “Cheri,” a real change of pace. Just make sure the hat is covered with beads and peacock feathers.
Amidst the giant robots, dinosaurs and hangovers of the summer, “Cheri” offers a story of the Belle Epoque, a subtle tale of love and loss based on a novel by Colette. This is from the era when a transformer was a human being that changed quietly in the course of a narrative, not a dump truck that turns into a fire-breathing cyborg.
Set in the decade or so before the First World War, “Cheri” takes place in the world of high-priced courtesans. Special attention is given to the ladies who are now “of a certain age,” who have invested their money wisely and now live lavishly.
The title character is the son of one such woman. Called “Cheri” as a nickname, he has already lived a debauched life, despite not having reached the age of 20. The actor who plays him, Rupert Friend, has just the right decadence in his face for the role.
Cheri’s mother, played by the gloriously right-on Kathy Bates, wants her son to be properly schooled. Not between walls, but by a woman of grace and knowledge.
Thus she calls on her old friend Lea de Lonval (Michelle Pfeiffer). And so a long affair begins between Lea, who is in her late 40s, and this directionless young man.
The movie isn’t interested in their years together, but in what happens when, inevitably, Cheri must marry someone respectable. Surely this won’t be a problem: This was a relationship of convenience and tutoring, and Lea de Lonval is not the kind of woman to lose her heart.
Of course not.
Colette’s novel is adapted by Christopher Hampton, and in some ways “Cheri” is a reunion for Hampton, director Stephen Frears, and Michelle Pfeiffer — in 1988 they collaborated on “Dangerous Liaisons,” that exquisite example of lethal gamesmanship amongst the powdered aristocracy.
“Cheri” has a few similarities, notably the way costumes become theatrical masks for the characters, who seem to be oblivious to their own absurdity. And yet — this is a trademark of the versatile Frears — there’s a lurking empathy for their foolishness, too.
“Dangerous Liaisons” had much more dramatic pull, thanks to its deviously plotting characters. “Cheri” doesn’t bang along like that. It’s more of a mood piece, quietly tracking the tiniest shifts in the art and business of love.
Pfeiffer has the right age and beauty for the role, and maybe those qualities compensate for her tendency toward emotional withdrawal.
I can imagine another actress going deeper with it, although when the camera stares at her face in the end, the controlled sense of loss and sadness is convincing.
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