Bel Ami (2012)
Average Rating: 4.9/10
Reviews Counted: 87
Fresh: 25 | Rotten: 62
Bel Ami contains some soapy pleasures but it overall rushes through the narrative and suffers from a vague central performance by Robert Pattinson.
Average Rating: 4.4/10
Critic Reviews: 26
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 23
Bel Ami contains some soapy pleasures but it overall rushes through the narrative and suffers from a vague central performance by Robert Pattinson.
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Average Rating: 2.7/5
User Ratings: 8,443
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Movie Info
Bel Ami is the story of Georges Duroy, who travels through 1890s Paris, from cockroach ridden garrets to opulent salons, using his wits and powers of seduction to rise from poverty to wealth, from a prostitute's embrace to passionate trysts with wealthy beauties, in a world where politics and media jostle for influence, where sex is power and celebrity an obsession. -- (C) Magnolia
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Cast
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Robert Pattinson
Georges Duroy -
Uma Thurman
Madeleine Forestier -
Kristin Scott Thomas
Virginie Rousset, Virgi... -
Christina Ricci
Clotilde, Clotilde de M... -
Colm Meaney
Monsieur Rousset, Rouss... -
Philip Glenister
Charles Forestier -
Holly Grainger
Suzanne Rousset -
Natalia Tena
Rachel the Prostitute -
James Lance
Francois Laroche -
Anthony Higgins
Comte de Vaudrec -
Thomas Arnold
Louis -
Timothy Walker
Solicitor -
Pip Torrens
Paul the Butler -
Christopher Fulford
Police Commissioner -
Amy Marston
Nanny -
Frank Dunne
Bishop -
George Potts
Chief Cashier -
Eloise Webb
Laurine de Marelle -
Iain Robertson
Innkeeper -
Balázs Czukor
Priest -
Rebecca Barrett
Dancer -
Tom Muggeridge
Dancer -
Matthew Cheney
Dancer -
Chloe Trend
Dancer
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Bel Ami Trailer & Photos
All Critics (87) | Top Critics (26) | Fresh (25) | Rotten (62)
"Bel Ami" is a handsome production, yet riddled with weaknesses.
Top CriticThe 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.
The women are all elegant and intelligent, they know the ways of the world, and they know Georges' history. Why do they find him attractive? We don't, and that failure is the downfall of the film.
Pattinson's passion is bloodless, his rakish George Duroy a font of undelivered potential.
Good actors flit in and out of the movie - particularly Kristin Scott Thomas and Colm Meaney - but no one seems able to conquer the essential silliness of it all...
What 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.
"Bel Ami" ends up being a film that feels cold and distant because of the stale lead and a story that makes no room for the affection between any of the couples.
This is the perfect film to cure someone of an obsession with "RPatz".
A gassy, self-satisfied adaptation of the 1885 novel of the same name, threadbare Parisian period piece Bel Ami belies the erroneous notion that costume dramas automatically have a higher IQ than their contemporary dramatic brethren.
Pattinson fails to step up and command this film with his performance, and never settles on anything definitive for his character.
As a caddish young man who seduces his way up the social ladder in late-19th-century Paris, Robert Pattinson looks much more the part than a too-old-for-the-role George Sanders in Hollywood's watered-down 1947 version, The Private Affairs of Bel Ami.
The film is far too concerned with its 'costume' and not nearly enough with its 'drama'.
Visually, the film is ornate and very attractive while the story, based on the 1885 novel by Guy de Maupassant, is essentially a pulpy morality tale about the perils of taking short cuts through life. A very satisfying, rough-edged period drama.
Pattinson doesn't work as the manipulative cad that this story demands.
A promising cast fails to save this period downer.
All four of the main actors are worth seeing, but don't expect the movie to amount to much.
Pattinson just stands there as if he's thinking, 'I'm sorry if this isn't enough for you, but I only have two faces I can make.'
Robert Pattinson is a terrible actor...Put him at the center of an actual movie and he's revealed as an empty pretty boy, a black hole of talent.
Robert Pattinson fits right into this material - a blistering critique of a man who can't overcome his self-hatred.
Pattinson's weakness as an actor is all the more glaring when compared to his supporting players.
Robert Pattinson is bland in sex-filled costume drama.
Audience Reviews for Bel Ami
Super Reviewer
This is a really well acted movie. Robert is quite convincing and you do see that all is not smiles as he seems to be on the surface. The women are also well written and convincing. The sex scene with him and Uma is quite brutal in an unexpected way. Actually hard to watch even though nothing is really shown.
Quite a dark little movie.
Super Reviewer
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- Clotilde de Marelle: You're just one of them, after all. Just another selfish, brutal man. Just another thief.
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- Georges Duroy: Well there is no next life.
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- Georges Duroy: That's because you've never been poor.
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- Georges Duroy: I will ruin you..
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- Georges Duroy: It's so clear to me.
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- Georges Duroy: Being loved is not enough.
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Foreign Titles
- Bel Ami: Historia de un seductor (ES)
