DVD Review

Cheri

Official Synopsis:

Indulge in Cheri, the seductive and provocative drama about a scandalous love affair, set during the opulent decadence of pre-World War I Paris starring award winners Michelle Pfeiffer and Kathy Bates (Best Actress Oscar, Misery, 1990). The ravishing Lea (Pfeiffer), famed courtesan to the rich and famous, is contemplating her retirement, when her archrival (Bates) asks her to teach her spoiled nineteen-year-old son Cheri about women. It's an adventure that becomes a heated and passionate affair that results in power struggles over sex, money, age and society - and unexpectedly, love itself - as a boy who refuses to grow up collides with a women who realizes she cannot stay young forever.

Our Take:

Director Stephen Frears’ most recent film, Cheri, is a told story. While all films supposedly tell a story, Cheri, in the way it is structured and shot, is the cinematic equivalent to reading a short story. We open with an omniscient narrator telling us the setting and providing context for the characters that inhabit the world of the film. And at only 93 minutes, Cheri utilizes this narrator a few more times to fill in time gaps in the story that would have filled out this short story of a film into an actual novel had they been shot.

Cheri is set in the Belle Epoque, the aristocratic French Golden Age. This is also the time frame of the more famous movie based on a story by Colette, Gigi. We are dropped into the social world of the top tier prostitutes or kept women of the time--think Ashley Dupree (the downfall of NY Governor Eliot Spitzer)--but with a sense of class and social acceptance. Kathy Bates chews the scenery as an aged, has-been prostitute heavy hitter living a life of luxury while keeping her pulse on the gossip of the time. Her son, the titular character Cheri, is a playboy of epic proportions that at 19 is seemingly bored with his life full of sex and alcohol. The highlight of the film is Michelle Pfeiffer, as the ultimate cougar. As we have seen in Dangerous Liasons and The Age of Innocence, Pfeiffer can play aristocratic costume drama with the best of them and does so here. As stunning as ever, it is easy to see why Cheri would fall for the much older Pfeiffer.

Eventually, Cheri’s meddling mother arranges a marriage for Cheri with a young woman closer to his age. The film tries to drum up some sense of drama as to whether Cheri will leave his new wife for the older Pfeiffer, but only can muster enough drama to make us turn the page or, well, continue to watch. Cheri makes a decision, the narrator returns to tell us what happens of Cheri, and the movie ends. With the short story finished, one is only left to wish that Stephen Frears would have had the opportunity afforded to him either by the script or the financiers to flesh out the story and explore the unique and interesting relationships in the film. Frears took on a drama of such characters on the fringe of society in The Grifters, and it is a shame he was not able to accomplish the same in Cheri.

Special Features:

The Making of Cheri (9 minutes)
Deleted Scenes (2 minutes) – Two scenes

Conclusion:

Cheri is an easy and fairly enjoyable watch. The costume and set design is fantastic, but the human emotion in the film is missing in inaction. Had Frears opened up the story a bit, Cheri would have benefited greatly. Instead, it is the film equivalent to an interesting enough short story you may read in a waiting room or some other place just to pass the time.

Overall Picture:

Movie: B-
Extra Features: C-

- Matthew Orlando
Staff Writer