Cheri DVD Review

Posted by Erik Luers on 10.23.2009

Well, Freud may have liked it...........



















Cheri opened this past summer on June 26th, 2009 from Miramax films. Director Stephen Frears had just come off an Oscar nomination for his directorial work on The Queen, and one of Michelle Pfeiffer's last theatrical roles was in Stardust. Upon opening, Cheri was met with very mixed critical response and poor domestic box office grosses. David Edelstein of The New York Magazine noted, "It’s not a good sign when you have to take the movie’s word for it that the lovers at its center are really, really into each other", and Michael O' Sullivan of The Washington Post proclaimed, "The movie bogs down by going nowhere other than inside its characters, who are intensely passionate but of an era more curious than emotionally relevant." Did I agree? Please read on to find out.

The Film

Stephen Frears' new film, Cheri, is a story without purpose. It focuses on two dull lovers whom the audience couldn't care less about, and it seems to have no idea as to how to create likable characters and believable conflict. The movie is about uninteresting upper-class people who constantly whine about wanting to be with the one person they can't have. But then, when they then get that one person, they would rather be with the person they had before. They are constantly in confusion and in endless denial of happiness and peace. Their world kept spinning and I wanted to get off.

Cheri (Rupert Friend) is a young lad who wants to bed a fancy call girl, Lea (Michelle Pfeiffer), one of his mother's good friends, and, quickly into the film, he gets to do just that. If a boy's best friend is his mother, his second best friend is his mother's tea partner. The two make love again and again, and they seem to be enamored with each other for reasons of which I honestly had no idea. At the drop of a hat (figuratively speaking, although there are a lot of top hats in this movie), the film then strangely jumps ahead six years. The two are in love, they are happy, they are smiling, and nobody in the audience cares. Here is a film where we are supposed to want the man and the woman to fall madly in love. When they do, we have no idea why they did, and we also have no idea why we wanted them to in the first place. The characters believe in themselves so much that we don't have to.

Yes, Cheri is a British production, based on the writings of the famous and eccentric Colette. It has a built in fan base, and I am sure (although not sure why) Frears and his frequent collaborator and screenwriter, Christopher Hampton, remained very faithful to the source material, desperate not to insult or anger any passionate Colette fans. And yet, nothing drives this movie forward. Some scenes are so brief that they barely register and leave an impact. Cheri is attracted to Lea, and we can easily understand that. The two make love, and yes, that makes some sense too. But why does the story jump ahead six years so quickly? We never get to see the relationship prosper and build, so when the romantic pair is forced to split up due to Cheri's mother (Kathy Bates) having planned an arranged marriage for her boy, we never see the harm in Lea and Cheri's relationship coming to an end. Their relationship was all superficial and shallow, both a good lay that had nothing going on upstairs (but apparently a lot going on downstairs).

In fact, I only truly cared about one character in the whole film. The person was, Edmee (Felicity Jones), the young woman Cheri is forced to marry about midway through the piece. She is young, caring, and warm, and wants to be a good and loyal wife to her new husband. Of course, Cheri doesn't want any part of her. I don't get it. This girl is beautiful and very kind, and all Cheri can think about is where Lea has run off to (she takes a trip far away for one reason or another and winds up bedding another young man). Cheri treats his wife terribly, and it was she who's heart I felt worst for.

In a bizarre instance of obtrusive cross cutting, Frears shows Cheri and his wife's first night of lovemaking (she is a virgin, he sure as hell isn't), edited together with Lea engaging in intercourse with her new beau. In both instances, Cheri and Lea prove to be better sexual partners than their current "lightweight" lovers. I'm not sure why, but I found these moments to be quite sad. What point is Frears trying to make? That people with less experience are unsatisfying? That once you sleep with a high class concubine there's no where to go but down (no pun intended)? That good sex is enough to make a relationship work?

I remember the New York Times film critic Mahnola Dargis' review of the 2008 film, The Reader, where she said that the movie was really about showing off Kate Winslet's fit stomach; Stephen Daldry was infatuated with his lead actress' body. Well, in Cheri, another British Stephen (Frears) seems to be in love with his leading lady's slender back. She is shown multiple times with her bare back towards the camera, and her back is exposed in other various positions throughout (pointed upwards while revealing a massage, for instance). There is some female nudity present in the film's opening scenes, but none from our lead actress. Frears is a simple back fetishist (he manages his R rating in other ways), and the scenes of a nude (but not really nude) Pfeiffer calls attention to itself for being tame and a bit of cheat. When she turns to leave a room, all the men star. Her bare back is her lure.

What works best about this film are its elegant costumes and luscious cinematography. They are both first rate, even when the film unfortunately is less so. Every dress worn by Pfeiffer is extremely detailed and remarkably well designed, and wait till you see the outfits worn by Kathy Bates. They are over the top and oh so right for her eccentric character. Her yellow night gown in one scene is visually very comedic, and that fits the characterization extremely well. A question though on the cinematography by Darius Khondji. Can ocean water really be that blue? If so, then wow. There is a daytime beach scene which left me in awe of the beauty of the sea. Where exactly is this and how I can I go?

Cheri's production values are high and able, but its story is tired, meandering, and weightless. The film is very short (eighty-six minutes without credits), and yet it feels about ten minutes too long. The irony of this is that the movie concludes abruptly, too abruptly maybe, and does not end as much as it just seems to stop. The ending is somber, but not thought provoking, and I'm pretty sure Frears was going for something long lasting and deep. Cheri is extremely fragmented. Maybe that's why fans of Colette enjoy the story. As a film, it seems interested in the bland. And yet I still find myself thinking about Cheri's wife. If it weren't for the hassle of arranged marriages, she could have done better. Frears probably could have too.

Film: 5.0


Technical Aspects

Video: Presented in its original 2:35:1 Widescreen aspect ratio (and enhanced for 16:9 TVs), Cheri looks great on DVD. Its colors are bright and vibrant, and many scenes prominently sparkle with detail. Look at the remarkable blue tone used for the ocean water presented midway through the film. Lea's blue outfit beautifully compliments the seawater. The costumes in this film are also exquisite, and they are displayed in pristine detail; each woman is upstaged by their wardrobe. Some of the candle lit scenes are perhaps a little too dark, but they are brief and not indistinguishable. This is by and large a brightly lit movie, and the video quality is very impressive. 16 chapter selections are included.


Audio: Presented in 5.1Sound (English), Cheri's audio track is nicely clean and crisp. The dialogue is very audible, the background source of noise strong, and the score, lush and booming. The film's sound is mixed proficiently, and it all blends together subtly on this DVD. There is also some voice over narration in the film, and it is neither too loud or too soft. It feels very organic and well placed. No hisses or other annoying audio distractions are present. A very solid job. The DVD also features subtitles in English, Spanish, and French.

Technical Aspects: 8.0


Special Features

The Making of Cheri (8:46): Why does this making of feature only last a scant nine minutes? It features no insight on the filmmaking process and is so brief that it never goes in depth on the production. The director, screenwriter, producer, production designer, and our three lead actors all talk about how brilliant the film is and how we should just assume that it is as well. Pfeiffer credits Friend for not making her feel old. Bates talks about how Friend welcomed her to the set via a text message. Hampton talks about how Frears gets everything right. The producer says that Cheri features masterful stokes from the director. Strange, I didn't detect any masterful signs. Maybe I was too busy watching the movie and not thinking about what the project would do for my impending career.

Deleted Scenes (2:05): Oh that's right, two minutes and five seconds worth of deleted scenes. Can you handle that? These two brief scenes would've added nothing to the finished film, so I'm surprised they weren't included in the final cut. The first is just a seventeen second scene involving Lea talking to one of her hired hands. It is a transition segment meant to bridge one scene to another, and it serves no purpose on its own. The second scene features Cheri and Lea talking about more dull stuff than I care to remember. It is pointless and meandering. That's all there is to see her, folks. Just more of the same.


Trailers for Anne Fletcher's The Proposal, Kirk Jones' Everybody's Fine, Walt Becker's Old Dogs, and Gil Junger's 10 Things I Hate About You (10th Anniversary Edition) are included, as well as TV/Promo spots for Lost: The Complete Fifth Season, The Legend of the Seeker: Season One, Miramax Films, and Blu-Ray discs.

Extras: 5.0

Film: 5.0
Technical Aspects: 8.0
Extras: 6.0

The 411: Cheri, as a film, is rarely interesting or compelling. It's well acted, but the characters are so smug and dumb that we can't invest ourselves in the story. Closer was about narcissistic, ruthless people in love, too, but they were smarter and more honest and truthful than this production's creations. Cheri really should have been about that one glimmer of innocence and hope, Edmee, but for some reason everyone was more infatuated with the character of Cheri. Why, I have no idea. The DVD is light on special features, but its technical aspects are very pleasing. Still, the film you'll have to watch to notice this just isn't worth it.

Final Score:  5.0   [ Not So Good ]