Bel Ami

Anyone who stars in a successful film series like the adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's Bis(s) books has to expect to be associated with a role over and over again. And so Robert Pattinson will have to come to terms with the fact that, at least for the next few years, audiences will always see Edward Cullen in him, no matter how hard he tries to distance himself from the role in other films. Even though he actually managed to do that quite well in Remember Me or Water for the Elephants, it wasn't enough to make the popular vampire forgettable at any point. Now Pattinson is attempting an even more significant break from the expectations of his female fans with Bel Ami. But it is precisely the extreme effort that causes him to fail in the end.

Bel Ami takes the viewer to Paris in 1890. Fortune finally seems to favor penniless Georges Duroy (Pattinson) when he meets Charles Forestier (Philip Glenister), a brother-in-arms from the war in Algeria, and with his help Georges gets a job at a liberal newspaper. There he is to write about the experiences of a young soldier in a column. But since Georges doesn't know a thing about writing, he agrees to let Forestier's beautiful wife Madeleine (Uma Thurman) help him out. And with this acquaintance, the young man also manages to get his foot in the door with the crème de la crème of Parisian society. By wooing the wives of influential men, he aims to quickly advance his career. In fact, he seems to be succeeding in doing just that. But as his success seems to increase, so does Georges` emotional coldness. And that makes the game he plays with women all the more dangerous...

The latest film adaptation of Guy de Maupassant`s famous novel, which has been adapted several times for cinema and television, marks the feature debut of acclaimed theatre directors Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod. Their enthusiasm for the novel has led them to create a richly detailed set and magnificent costumes that bring the late 19th century to life on screen. With this equipment, the known template and a very good ensemble of actors, where besides Uma Thurman especially a surprisingly sensual Christina Ricci can inspire, the prerequisites for a gripping costume drama are almost perfect.

But despite the many successful aspects, which are perhaps even in the majority, Bel Ami does not want to work properly. However, this can only be partially blamed on lead actor Robert Pattinson. Even though the actor has already proven that he has more talent than he is allowed to show in Twilight, he is simply the wrong casting for the role of the calculating seducer. It's obvious from his face almost every second how hard Pattinson is trying to give a powerful performance. Quivering lips, widened eyes, all of it is just too much of a good thing. Maybe he would be a little more believable in the role if he had toned down his acting a bit. But this way the role seems to be too hard, the emotional coldness too much acted, as the viewer could take it from Robert Pattinson.

But it's not only the miscast leading actor, who makes a rather bland film out of a tingling drama. The biggest problem with the production is that the story is told in a shockingly irrelevant way. The viewer lacks characters whose fate one would like to sympathize with. There is no dramaturgical tension to hold together the good acting of most of the actors and the beautiful pictures. So Bel Ami is purely visually a real pleasure. But if you need more than a few beautiful people in (and without) fancy costumes, you will probably leave the cinema disappointed. Therefore: despite many good aspects and an extremely effortful main actor unfortunately only very conditionally worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp