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Recent releases:
- That They May Face the Rising Sun
- Jericho Ridge
- Civil War
- Mothers' Instinct
- Sweet East, The
- Ghost Busters: Frozen Empire
- Immaculate
- Roaring Twenties, The (reissue)
- Soul
- Dune: part two
- American Star
- Dune: Part 1 (reissue)
- Jerry & Marge Go Large
- Argylle
- Forever Young
- Jackdaw
- All of Us Strangers
- Holdovers, The
- Mean Girls
- Poor Things
Bel Ami
Stars: Robert Pattinson, Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Christina Ricci, Colm Meaney, Philip Glenister, Holliday Grainger, Natalia Tena, James Lance, Anthony Higgins, Thomas Arnold, Timothy Walker, Pip Torrens, Christopher Fulford, Amy Marston, Frank Dunne, George Potts, Eloise Webb
Director: Declan Donnellan & Nick Ormerod
Guy de Maupassant meets RPatz now surely thats a movie with a built-in critical sneer factor?
True.
But all-too-easily achieved sneering isnt always the correct response for a film that effectively targets its demographic audience which here, has to be Pattinsons enormous fan base he has accumulated through the Twilight movies.
So how does Pattinson come off without his vampire fangs?
Competently enough, and just what Bel Ami needs, as he deploys his buff body to seduce his way into wealthy society in 19th century Paris (attractively played by Budapest). Im hoping for better luck in Paris", the former soldier tells Glenister and he makes sure he gets it, along with wealth and position, by bedding Ricci, Thurman and Scott Thomas.
Donnellan and Ormerods unashamed star-driven story comes over like a lush riff on Alfie and reminded me irresistibly of those heady 1940s Gainsborough melodramas designed to capitalize on their players star personae with the added appeal of evocative production design (by the interestingly-named Attilla F Kovacs), costumes (Odile Dicks-Mireaux) and Stefano Falivenes attractive cinematography.
Pattinson is well supported by Thurman, Ricci (finally casting off her Addams Family image) and Thomas (who appears to be becoming obligatory in French-set movies) and who delivers yet another version of an essentially icy character whose uncontrolled sexual lusts are barely below the surface.
Pattinson may not entirely convince as the journalist and later, gossip columnist he plays on the way to making it grande in Paris but his star persona is enough for what the film wants while his female costars competently fill in the dramatic gaps.
Alan Frank
UK/France/Italy 2012. UK Distributor: StudioCanal. Colour.
102 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.
Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 2, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 0.
Review date: 09 Mar 2012