40
This glimpse into a decadent era has its charms, but they’re mostly visual. While Pfeiffer and Friend perform well, the script is tonally confused and lacks edge.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
50
Chéri never fulfills its emotional promise.
40
New York Magazine (Vulture) by David Edelstein
Michelle Pfeiffer is brittle in a way that's not especially French, but she's poignant and very lovely. Rupert Friend, on the other hand, is difficult to warm up to, especially with his features hidden behind all that hair. 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.
50
Like a passable bottle of champagne, Cheri fizzes and slides down quite easily but lacks real body and doesn't really hit the spot.
75
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
A respectable and satisfying historical romantic melodrama.
80
The Hollywood Reporter by Kirk Honeycutt
Actors blossom under Frears' direction. There is no false moment or off-key note in this movie.
40
Village Voice by Melissa Anderson
Frears and Hampton's missteps begin immediately, with the director providing pinched narration as he recounts, over so many cartes de visite, the histories of other famous ladies who made a handsome living on their backs.
75
Rolling Stone by Peter Travers
With Pfeiffer, 50, radiating uncommon beauty, grace and feeling, Frears uncovers a fragile story's grieving heart.
88
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
The success of Stephen Frears’ film Chéri begins with its casting. Michelle Pfeiffer, as Lea de Lonval, is still a great beauty.
75
The A.V. Club by Tasha Robinson
The film is a sumptuous, handsome portrait of a woman poised fearfully on the brink of decline, yet too proud to grab at rescue.