Chéri

Bad hairdressing can really ruin a girl's look.

Impossibly creamy, but he's not 19!

Ghastly HDB perm.

What promised to be a louche, guilty romp, became banal nonsense, and I, unexpectedly, did a lot of forwarding on this DVD. I had liked Stephen Frears's The Queen a lot. The Colette stories Cheri (upon which the film was based), held such promise, and the people behind this so reputable - but what a bore the movie is. I couldn't care less about the two dull lovers, both of whom would be repellant in real life, and this is saying alot since I'm a fan both of Colette and Rupert Friend. Michelle Pfeiffer as the cougar/courtesan is beautifully brittle, but not convincingly Parisienne: Lovely to behold in a Lux commercial sort of way, but not truly poignant. Rupert Friend, on the other hand, never seems convincingly young, despite the youthful, creamy nudity - difficult to warm up to - perhaps it's that ghastly perm he's wearing? The bangs seem to be in their very own curly fries movie.

And not enough of the marvellous Katie Bates, too, who could have saved the show.

This very slight film is good for killing time if you're on the plane, otherwise, unlikely to be missed.