Bel Ami: Critic Reviews

Although this is potentially juicy stuff, it is as dry and tasteless as a shrunken piece of fruit left in the refrigerator far too long.

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.

Pattinson's performance is so enervated that his Georges Duroy comes across as something of a cipher.

Robert Pattinson isn't all that bad in "Bel Ami." He just isn't right.

What could be hotter than a bed-hopping bodice-ripper in which the movie hunk of the moment plows through three of the sexiest actresses of the 1990s? Most everything, it turns out.

Though gorgeous to look at, the first feature from Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod has an undeniable void at its very center: an utterly blank leading man.

...a relentlessly leaden rethink of the rollicking tale of opportunism and social-climbing in late 19th-century Paris

The women are all elegant and intelligent, they know the ways of the world, and they know Georges' history. Why do they find him attractive? We don't, and that failure is the downfall of the film.

The supposedly cunning protagonist registers as a cipher, and the directors' tendency to shoot dialogue scenes in close-up blunts any understanding of the social milieu he's trying to conquer.

It's the total lack of empathy these characters elicit (or don't) that is Bel Ami's overarching problem.

"Bel Ami" is a handsome production, yet riddled with weaknesses.

It's based on Guy de Maupassant's 1885 novel, but an old-school must-see-TV sitcom has more depth.

Pattinson's callowness and tendency to play rage as petulance don't help.

An enjoyably soapy 19th-century costume drama with a crackling, female-centric cast that features Uma Thurman, Christina Ricci and Kristin Scott Thomas.

Based on Guy de Maupassant's 1885 novel, Bel Ami is the meandering, unfocused tale of the rise of an unprincipled opportunist in the upper class circles of late 19th century Paris.

A flavorless literary adaptation sunk by a lead actor, screenwriter and co-directors that are all out of their depth.

Pattinson portrays a man who has no moral code and gets to have tons of sex, with various women of smart Parisian society, played by the likes of Uma Thurman, Christina Ricci and Kristen Scott Thomas. Yet mysteriously, the tedium continues.

With that cast, we rightfully expect fireworks. What we get is the film equivalent of a wet blanket.

Intriguing political aspects of the story involving military designs on Morocco and the influence of the media would have more resonance if the human drama had more heft.

"Bel Ami" ends up being a film that feels cold and distant because of the stale lead and a story that makes no room for the affection between any of the couples.

This is the perfect film to cure someone of an obsession with "RPatz".

A gassy, self-satisfied adaptation of the 1885 novel of the same name, threadbare Parisian period piece Bel Ami belies the erroneous notion that costume dramas automatically have a higher IQ than their contemporary dramatic brethren.

Pattinson fails to step up and command this film with his performance, and never settles on anything definitive for his character.

As a caddish young man who seduces his way up the social ladder in late-19th-century Paris, Robert Pattinson looks much more the part than a too-old-for-the-role George Sanders in Hollywood's watered-down 1947 version, The Private Affairs of Bel Ami.

The film is far too concerned with its 'costume' and not nearly enough with its 'drama'.