Cheri

The latest from Stephen Frears certainly isn’t timid in referencing his past work Dangerous Liaisons, from a photograph taken straight from the film to a strikingly similar closing scene. Yet Cheri, held up against its historical parallel, seems disappointingly anaemic. The two are similar with their scheming idle-rich, decadent styling and tragic love triangles, but the absorbing quality of the former (propelled by the charisma of John Malkovich’s Valmont) is noticeably absent here. Michelle Pfeiffer vulnerably shines in her sensitive portrayal of the aging courtesan Lea, who, longing to revive some semblance of her youth as the Belle Époque fades with it, embarks on a relationship with her friend’s emotionally neglected son Cheri (Rupert Friend). Sadly however, Lea’s desire is not authenticated by Friend’s dandy who comes across like an asexual, pubescent strop-monster, resulting in a lack of chemistry fatal to a plot already so thin. In this case, being John Malkovich would probably have been a better idea.