This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Plot in A Paragraph: Georges Duroy (Robert Pattinson) is a penniless soldier returning from war. He travels to Paris in a search for ways to improve his social and financial status. He uses his wit and powers of seduction to charm many of the wealthy women in the countries capital.Stepping away from playing brooding vampire Edward Cullen in the "Twilight" movies, Robert Pattinson simply plays an extension of that character, and plays a brooding former soldier who only has three expressions. Depressed, brooding and smug. His performance is so similar his character here could simply be Edward Cullen pre him being bitten by a vampire. Of the female cast Uma Thurman is still attractive and owns the screen when she is on it, the often under rated Kristin Scott Thomas is solid support, but it is the delightful Christina Ricci that steals the show as Clotide de Marelle. He is a joy and I'm always impressed when I see her (albeit it not often enough)Of the rest of the cast only Colm Meaney stands out.

"Bel Ami", set in the Paris of the 1880s, is centred upon a young man named Georges Duroy, the "bel ami", or "handsome friend", of the title. When we first meet him, Duroy is a former soldier, now employed as a badly-paid office clerk. A chance meeting with an old army comrade leads to an offer of job as a journalist on an influential newspaper and an entry into Parisian high society. Duroy now schemes to improve his social and financial status, a process which generally involves seducing as many society ladies, often the wives of his friends, as possible. I was surprised to note that the budget for the film was as low as €9 million, around £7 million and absolute peanuts by Hollywood standards. Certainly, it does not quite have the rich look of many "heritage cinema" productions, but it captures the look of late nineteenth century Paris quite adequately, and I do not think that the small budget was the reason why the film does not come off. The real reasons go deeper. The main one is the miscasting of Robert Pattinson in the main role. I know that, following his success in the "Twilight" series, Pattinson is regarded as something of a heartthrob, but he does not show much evidence of it here. He comes across as completely inert and lacking in the sexual charisma which one would expect such a successful Lothario to possess. To be fair to Pattinson, however, he does not get a lot of help from the script, which makes Duroy seem mean-spirited and cynical. It is hard to like a film with such a blackguard for its main character. Of the other actors the best is probably Christina Ricci as Clotilde de Marelle. Clotilde is a young, unhappily married woman who makes the fatal mistake of falling in love with Duroy, who can never be faithful to her because he is, of course, passionately in love with himself. I have admired Kristin Scott Thomas in some of her earlier films but here, as Virginie Rousset, another of Duroy's conquests, she seemed too old for the part. Adaptations of nineteenth and early twentieth century novels, a genre which has become known as "heritage cinema", have played an important role in the cinema over the last few decades, particularly in Britain and France but also in other countries. The style has become particularly associated with the work of Merchant-Ivory, but there have been many other important works in the genre such as Schlesinger's "Far from the Madding Crowd", Losey's "The Go-Between", Scorsese's "The Age of Innocence" and Terence Davies's "The House of Mirth". Not all films made in this style, however, are of the same quality; at its worst heritage cinema can be beautiful but static and lifeless; Charles Sturridge's "Where Angels Fear to Tread", a piece of fake Ivory, being a case in point. With a plot that does not flow easily, an implausible storyline and a hero who comes across as completely charmless, even though he is supposed to use his charm as a weapon, "Bel Ami" is another example of heritage cinema at its worst. I have never read the novel by Guy de Maupassant, so cannot pass judgement on its merits as a work of literature, but I'm afraid to say that this adaptation did not exactly fill me with an immediate desire to rush out and buy a copy. 4/10

Being uninterested in Pattinson as a vampire, teenage heart-throb, I thought myself unbiased and ready to appreciate his acting skills. Unfortunately, this movie did not reveal any. Pattinson plays Georges Duroy, a penniless ex-NCO, who seduces and manipulates rich women despite a complete lack of wit or endowments. Besides not showing any of the charisma required by the part, Pattinson's rough features add further hindrance. The role would have suited an actor of refined handsomeness, to make the contrast with Georges personality even more striking. What we get instead is Pattinson's boxer nose, coupled with a flat delivery of his lines. It makes it hard to believe that so many women would find him irresistible.The story follows Duroy meeting in a brothel Forestier, a former comrade. For reasons impossible to understand, Forestier invites him to dinner and ends up offering Georges a job. During this dinner Georges meets three women willing to be manipulated like puppets, despite the fact that they all seem smarter than Georges. The first is Clotilde is a rich, dizzy married woman, who just wants to be Georges lover at all costs. For their first sexual encounter, Georges invites her to his squalid abode and Clotilde decides to rent an expensive love nest to continue their relationship.Madeleine is Forestier's wife, played by Thurman. She is an independent, clever woman who ends up marrying Georges, although she has absolutely no reason whatsoever to do so. Their relation is completely inexplicable.Mme Rousset, played by Scott Thomas, is a middle aged married woman who loses her head for the completely charm-free Georges. The seduction scene that involves the two of them is cringe-inducing.Finally, a fourth woman also falls for Georges, making the whole movie a sequel of sexual encounters strangely lacking any passion. Not bad for a boy who would hardly get a second glance, but incredibly tedious as a movie plot

Bel Ami is historically interesting, as relates to the economic and exploitative aspects of the French invasion of Morocco. The intrigue and destiny of Georges Duroy may not satisfy viewers desiring more action, eroticism, or happy endings, but it presented an engaging story. Given the impoverished background of Duroy, I thought Pattison offered an effective portrayal of a poor, bewildered young man attempting to juggle unaccustomed opportunities and beautiful women in high society. The other actresses and actors also nicely delivered their characters. Perhaps this critic is not sophisticated enough to demand more, but I believe that the movie well fulfilled its premise.