Cheri - DVD Review

Director Stephen Frears (Dangerous Liaisons) re-teams with Michelle Pfeiffer and screenwriter Christopher Hampton for this lush and playful adaptation of a famed novel by Colette. Pfeiffer stars as a Belle Époque prostitute “of a certain age” who is asked to look after the playboy son (Rupert Friend) of a friend (Kathy Bates). What should be a simple flirtation becomes true love, of course, and Pfeiffer’s character is loathe to part with her “cheri.” Overall, this is a respectable period piece that features Pfeiffer’s best dramatic work in years.

Shelf Talk: The film had a moderately successful theatrical run, but it promises to do better on DVD thanks to its literary and chick-flick pedigrees. The names of Frears (a real cinematic chameleon who also directed The Queen, Mrs. Henderson Presents and High Fidelity), Pfeiffer and Colette will put Cheri in the class of Jane Austen-derived films, rather than the mass of BBC adaptations of classic literature.