United Kingdom, Italy · 2012
Rated R · 1h 42m
Director Nick Ormerod, Declan Donnellan
Starring Robert Pattinson, Uma Thurman, Christina Ricci, Kristin Scott Thomas
Genre Romance, Drama
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Georges Duroy travels through 1890s Paris, from cockroach ridden garrets to opulent salons, using his wits and powers of seduction to rise from poverty to wealth, from a prostitute’s embrace to passionate trysts with wealthy beauties, in a world where politics and media jostle for influence, where sex is power and celebrity an obsession.
Its the ladies who are worth tracking here, from Ricci's understated sensuality to Thomas's fragile angularity. They've supplemented beauty with good old-fashioned acting chops, something their cover-boy co-star would be wise to emulate.
Pattinson portrays the monotonous Georges Duroy in two equally dry modes: scowls and smirks.
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
At least the set design and costumes are excellent. The movie feels overstuffed and undercooked but it always looks nice.
"I had no conception of the depths of your emptiness!" a character shrieks in Bel Ami, and her words take on an unintended resonance as addressed to Robert Pattinson in the lead role.
The satire rarely stings, as first-time feature directors Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod give a polite Masterpiece Theatre gloss to this most impolite of tales.
Slant Magazine by Nick Schager
A coherent characterization of Robert Pattinson's striving schemer is nowhere to be found in this pedestrian period piece.
Even with a strong cast to gild its endless chambers and salons, there's barely a spark of soul to fuel its story. Pattinson is no Malkovich either.
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
Robert Pattinson has to do an awful lot of hollow-eyed smouldering in this hammily enunciated French period drama, taken from the 1885 novel by Guy de Maupassant.
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