"Bel Ami" Review by Irish Times (UK)

"Bel Ami" Review by Irish Times (UK)

DANGEROUS LIAISONS with Twilight ’s Edward? Sadly, Bel Ami is nothing like Dangerous Liaison s with Twilight ’s Edward. Set in turn-of-the-century France, this muddled adaptation of Guy de Maupassant’s 1885 novel is a confusing and pointless gallimaufry of corsets, petticoats, a naked Robert Pattinson and billets-doux.

Somewhere around the 90- minute mark we come to realise we’ve been watching a drama about a peasant soldier (Pattinson) who rises through Parisian society with the aid of a troika of mistresses, played by Uma Thurman, Christina Ricci and Kristen Scott Thomas. We’re only relieved someone knows what’s going on.

Pattinson works hard to articulate Georges Duroy, an unlikeable but mostly blank antihero adrift in an impressionistic film. Pattinson is a better actor than Bel Ami ’s thin, erratic characterisation allows him to be. But rest assured: the rest of the cast is equally squandered.

The film-makers give us little to hang on to until the grandes dames turn in late grandstanding moments. A murky subplot about war in Morocco becomes a fumbled reveal. Scandals are explained clumsily and retrospectively.

As with the writing, the production is relentlessly shallow, with camera work that hovers between close-up and extreme close-up. For a heritage picture, Bel Ami looks awfully like a video- booth diary with the flattering luminosity of Vaseline on the lens.

There are saving graces. Thurman puts in her best turn since Kill Bill and, when she assumes ghost-writing duties for Pattinson’s star journalist, fashions an arch riposte to her youthful role in Liaison s. Colm Meaney, playing Duroy’s powerful employer, is no end of fun and snide remarks. The dresses and curtains are oh-so-pretty.

This year’s Dangerous Liaisons ? More like this year’s Water for Elephants.

Source => Irish Times / Via => Spunk Ransom