"Bel Ami" Review by Critic (Germany)

"Bel Ami" Review by Critic (Germany)

In another film adaptation of the novel by Guy de Maupassant, Robert Pattinson tried the role of an unscrupulous cad.

Georges Duroy returned to Paris in the late nineteenth century, after years as a soldier in Algeria. He deftly uses his newly established with powerful men and women to climb the social ladder of the high society. Bel Ami, the bestselling novel by Guy de Maupassant, describes a career built unscrupulously in a corrupt society which seems to expect such methods.

A timeless subject, not least as suggested by the fact that the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) list about half a dozen of adaptations for film and television. Now, this British production is further added to the list.

Robert Pattinson was in the film Twilight, the vampire kind, here he is a manipulative, selfish, careerist, unscrupulous cad. He tries to interpret it by facial expressions with which he could strange surely be nominated for Razzie Awards: Pattinson grimace with the mouth in different directions, leaving his upper lip vibrate or shows his teeth. This quickly becomes a mannerism barely tolerable.

Pattinson is visible in every scene, and its low representation could already spoil the film. If there was still something to spoil. The direction of Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod points wisely chapters of the novel and vigorously painted Parisian nightlife, where someone is always asking for the "champagne". Connected by a clue, scene after scene, a seduction to another, a lady seductively wrapped in a sheet to another. Everything is served with a loud soundtrack.

Uma Thurman in the role of smart and talented Madame Forestier, who is responsible for the professional success of uncultivated Bel Ami, could be an interesting female character who opposes the ability of Pattinson's character. We see her from time to time as a journalist / housewife investigator, but the film has no real interest in his female roles. Kristin Scott Thomas and Christina Ricci, who are other victims of love, play his on-screen partners, and as the plot requires it, he triumphs.

Source => Critic / Translation => LeRPattzClub