Cheri is a depressing tale of an ill-fated love affair between a beautiful but aging courtesan and her immature and selfish young lover. Lea (Michelle Pfeiffer), a lovely and popular courtesan in Belle Époque France is getting fed up with "the life." Although she has become quite wealthy keeping the company of some of the richest and most influential men in Europe, she longs to just sit back on her laurels. While she is visiting her sharp-tongued former rival, Charlotte Peloux (Kathy Bates), she bumps into her 19-year-old son, Fred (Rupert Friend), who is essentially Lea's godchild. When Fred was very young, Lea christened him with the nickname "Cheri" (hence the film's title) and she calls him this still. Although it seems that Fred does quite well with the ladies on his own, Charlotte asks Lea to school him in the ways of women and since both Lea and Fred/Cheri are both incredibly attractive, it doesn't take much convincing. Much to Charlotte's chagrin, what begins as a lesson turns into a 6-year relationship.

Although neither Cheri nor Lea has really given any thought to the future or where this exciting relationship will go, Charlotte has been plotting all the while and arranges a fine marriage for Cheri with the pretty daughter of another popular courtesan. When Lea finds out about the marriage, with Charlotte relishing in breaking the "happy news" to her, she plays it off and acts as if she expected it all the time. See, Lea never expected to fall so deeply in love with a man 30 years her junior, and Cheri never expected to fall so hard for Lea. The kicker is that the marriage is just fine with Cheri, although he doesn't love the girl. He assumes his sexual relationship with Lea will carry on as though nothing has changed, but that doesn't sit well with Lea. Devastated, although not wanting to admit falling for this man-child, she flees to the coast to find a new lover and to escape the wedding bells of her beloved Cheri.

While Lea is gone, Cheri goes through with the wedding, but can't be happy with his new wife since all he thinks about is Lea (and himself, of course). He does everything in his power to locate Lea, but Lea has carefully hidden herself away to prevent him from finding her, because she believes this is what is best for all concerned. Instead, she takes a new young lover to try and wipe away Cheri's bittersweet memory. Cheri becomes cold and isolates his new wife, spending his days stalking Lea's empty house. Strangely, when Lea finally returns, Cheri runs back to his wife's arms, only to wind up in Lea's bed later that day. However, Lea soon realizes that she can't stop the aging process and this young man is "better off" without her, considering their age difference, despite the fact that they both realize that they are soul mates - especially when he isn't willing to give everything up and leave with her.

Are you confused? So was I, pretty much throughout the entire movie. If these two love each other so much, why do they keep hurting each other, vacillating between doing what seems best for the other and what seems best for themselves, at least in a selfish regard? I can't say the end of the film is any more satisfying than the rest, as you can guess it can't and won't end happily for anyone concerned. While the acting was quite good, the story just seemed stupid to me and somewhat pointless. The sets are quite sumptuous and beautiful, as is Pfeiffer, but the movie felt more like a play than anything else; all of the acting was a bit over the top and the sets weren't large, expansive areas, but more small but exquisite surroundings. While this film is said to be both comedy and drama, I only noticed a few humorous lines (unless you count the catty exchanges that always take place between Charlotte and Lea) and found the film to be quite depressing. The special features are simply a handful of deleted scenes (better left deleted) and a short making-of featurette, which was fairly boring. I can't honestly recommend this film to anyone unless they are a big fan of the book by Collette that this movie is based upon. While I am normally a fan of period pieces, I just really didn't enjoy this one at all.

---