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40He's neither a fun villain or a secret good guy; the movie feels like a senseless venture because, even with his pants down on top of Clotilde or manhandling Virginie, he's the dullest scoundrel around.
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40Although this is potentially juicy stuff, it is as dry and tasteless as a shrunken piece of fruit left in the refrigerator far too long.
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Jun 7, 201260Thurman, Meaney and Scott Thomas acquit themselves well, while Ricci's Clotilde is sweet yet posed. Pattinson, who has delivered some strong performances in non-"Twilight" fare, might be exploring the flip side of the Team Edward swoon factor but, finally, his Georges is merely vampiric.
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40Though 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.
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Jun 4, 201260A good-looking yet curiously tame adaptation of a saucy classic that showcases Pattinson's ambition if not his full abilities.
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40"I had no conception of the depths of your emptiness!" a character shrieks in Bel Ami, and her words take on an unintended resonance as addressed to Robert Pattinson in the lead role.
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75What distinguishes Pattinson in the role is the sense he conveys of someone roiling and churning beneath a surface that is almost, but not quite, calm.
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38With that cast, we rightfully expect fireworks. What we get is the film equivalent of a wet blanket.
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50Robert Pattinson isn't all that bad in Bel Ami. He just isn't right.
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65On the whole Bel Ami is highly watchable.
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67This new Bel Ami has a lot to recommend it, but it never seems as artful or smart as "Dangerous Liaisons," the film it most resembles.
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Jun 4, 201240A flavorless literary adaptation sunk by a lead actor, screenwriter and co-directors that are all out of their depth.
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40Even with a strong cast to gild its endless chambers and salons, there's barely a spark of soul to fuel its story. Pattinson is no Malkovich either.
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50A coherent characterization of Robert Pattinson's striving schemer is nowhere to be found in this pedestrian period piece.
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40The cast is intriguing, with Uma Thurman, Christina Ricci and Kristin Scott Thomas as the targets of Pattinson's ambitious amour. But they're not given a whole lot to do -- at least not much that's interesting.
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38It's just that Pattinson's performance is so enervated that his Georges Duroy comes across as something of a cipher. He's not quite alive, yet also clearly not dead, given the amount of sex he has. He's undead, or at least uninteresting.
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Jun 7, 201238Bel Ami is handsome enough, although the directorial skill runs mostly to careful framing of magnificent bosoms, Pattinson's included.
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38Laughably bad adaptation of a Guy de Maupassant novel.
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40The satire rarely stings, as first-time feature directors Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod give a polite Masterpiece Theatre gloss to this most impolite of tales.
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Jun 5, 201240Its the ladies who are worth tracking here, from Ricci's understated sensuality to Thomas's fragile angularity. They've supplemented beauty with good old-fashioned acting chops, something their cover-boy co-star would be wise to emulate.
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25Pattinson portrays the monotonous Georges Duroy in two equally dry modes: scowls and smirks.
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40Robert 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.
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50At least the set design and costumes are excellent. The movie feels overstuffed and undercooked but it always looks nice.
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Jun 21, 201250The 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.
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50The surprise for me is Christina Ricci, who I think of as undernourished and nervous, but who flowers here in warm ripeness.