MOVIE: CHÉRI

The happiness on Michelle Pfeiffer’s face signals more than post coital glow. That happens quite a lot in Stephen Frears’ witty adaption of Colette’s infamous novel, because she’s Lea, a wealthy and beautiful Parisian ‘courtesan’. Today we would call her something else, but the 51-year-old star may also be grinning at still being asked to play such roles. The object of her lust is the heavy-lidded 19-year-old son (Rupert Friend) of another courtesan (Kathy Bates), and he has the insolent charm of someone raised in a brothel. Of course their affair can’t end well, but Frears takes a long and languid time to make an obvious point. We’d call that ageism now and there are workplace rules about it. Not a problem for Ms Pfeiffer, at least not yet. (RE)