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Michelle Pfeiffer gives us a film with a Cheri on top

It has been said that the surest way to win the Oscar is to do a period piece.  The lavish sets and pompous costumes just lend an air of respect, whither deserved or not.  The latest flick to try this early Academy push is the pompous sex romp Cheri.

The time is the turn of the century and the place is Paris, France.  Lea de Lonval (Michelle Pfeiffer) is a much praised courtesan who is starting to show the ravages of age.  Though still able to turn a head, she knows that her days of bedding the rich are numbered.  She begins to think about finding a permanent love and settled life.  Her rival for affections of men is Charlotte Peloux (Kathy Bates) another lady of leisure who has also seen her best days.  Charlotte has a young son who Lea has nicknamed Cheri (Rupert Friend).  It seems that Cheri is a bit of a disappointment to Charlotte.  All the young man does is lay about during the day and lay all night.  The twists of the screenplay put Lea and Cheri together not just for the night, but for years.

This scandalous relationship lasts until Charlotte decides that Cheri must marry up in society.  A marriage is arranged between Cheri and a woman more his age.  This takes Lea aback because it seems that she may actually be in love with a man who young enough to be her son.  The rest of Cheri is of how all the tangents of the love triangle unfold to nothing like a parallelogram. 

This is just another costume epics without the epic part.  These films work best when they are placed in some historic contest like a war or a societal upheaval.  The backdrop of Cheri is almost non-existence to the point where it looses a sense of place.  There needs to be some grander scope. 

But on the plus side, the entire production is just amazing.  Costume designer Consalata Boyle delivers some of the most impressive clothes seen in years.  The colors and designs just jump off the screen.  Production Designer Alan MacDonald definitely puts a time and place with every element that fits in the frame.  Cheri is just a joy to take in, a visual feast for the eyes. 

The problem is the story.  It just isn’t there.  We don’t believe the motivations of any character.  It feels forced to the point of being pained.  Speeches don’t flow but stumble out.  At times other characters talk so differently it is as if they are reading various screenplays in the same film. 

Michelle Pfeiffer does look wonderful as the older woman.  Her face still has that elegant grace.  In what is an attempt for an early Oscar push, she plays the lady of the evening with overblown style and manners.  One can believe that she could turn the head of a young man. 

Kathy Bates just chews up each scene she can get a tooth in.  Some of her delivery is so over the top it is as if were being played as a farce.  But she does look great in the costumes.

I never bought Rupert Friend as the young Cheri.  He comes across more as a spoiled brat than a man trying to accept life in a world of women.  One wonders why Lea would fall for such an immature person, much less be with him for six years.  For someone who is around seducers, he never learns when he is being taken.  Just a bit more than pouting, it is a delivery that lacks. 

Director Stephen Frears tries to go epic without giving an epic time.  At 90 minutes, Cheri never grounds itself.  The choice of a voice over narration became an irritant.  He needs to learn the mantra of ‘show—don’t tell’.  While some of the elements in Cheri do work, the entire production needed another re-write of three. 

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