Michelle Pfeiffer is totally gorgeous. She lights up the screen with her beauty and is a totally wonderful actress. She is one of the best aspects of this very sweet and pretty movie.
This is a very nice film by Stephen Frears about an aging whore in Belle Epoque Paris who falls in love with the significantly younger son of a fellow working women. I've never read the Colette book that the film is based on, but the story is not all that surprising. The duo fall in love, the son is then married off to another young woman so they can have children (as Pfeiffer is presumably too old), he gets bored and longs for his older, more erotic and passionate lover. Their lives end up totally wrecked by their inability to connect on the same level with one another at the right time.
I really liked the oedipal relationship between Pfeiffer and Rupert Friend. Their sexual attraction is totally tied to his needing guidance and mothering (as his mother, Kathy Bates, is totally self-possessed). Pfeiffer infantilizes him, frequently nuzzling him as if he were her child. She is a narcissist who needs attention from her rivals and him, and she clearly loves the youthful feeling she gets from spending time with such a younger man. Ultimately, her mothering of him (which is, again, self-centered) begins to suffocate him and he gets out. It's a fascinating psycho-sexual drama of a classic kind.
Pfeiffer is the totally perfect (English-speaking actress) for this role. She, herself, is just over 50 and it totally believable as an older lady with lots of experience who can get lost in love with a younger, hot man. She's also totally physically appealing so it totally makes sense that Rupert Friend's 19-year-old character would fall for her.
The sets and costumes are wonderful in this and make every shot beautiful and bright. Pfeiffer's Art Nouveau house is absolutely gorgeous, as is her bed (where many scenes take places) and her wardrobe.
The script drags a bit more than it should, and though I never totally felt bored, I also never was totally excited or thrilled with the comic elements of this. Overall everything felt tight enough, but the final impact was not overwhelming. The psychology is very interesting, but I think it's mostly on the surface and pretty overt. I would have liked a bit more subtlety from the story.
I liked this movie, but feel like it is small. It looks wonderful and the acting is great, there was just something missing in it that didn't totally lock me in.
Stars 2.5 of 4
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