PCP on DVD - Bel Ami

My wife loves films set in the past, especially historical romances like Pride & Prejudice.  This caused us to pick up the film Bel Ami to see if it was any good.  With a promising cast including Uma Thurman & Christina Ricci, I held out hope that the film wouldn't be a waste of 102 minutes.  Too bad my hopes were mostly dashed.

Bel Ami - 2012, rated R.  My rating: 6 out of 10.

Bel Ami is apparently a film adaptation of a famous French novel from 1885 (something I didn't know until researching for this review).  It is the story of a former soldier, Georges (Robert Pattinson), who lusts for more in his life than his low station due to his poor birth.  He decides to improve his lot in life, which he does by sleeping his way to the top, taking on a number of rich and powerful women as his mistresses, especially Ricci & Thurman.  Along the way though he is exposed as the conniving schmuck he is, a man with absolutely no morals or compassion for the women he is using.

The film itself has the great period costumes of the turn of the century, and the cast looks great in the well-crafted clothes.  Pattinson shows that he actually does have some acting talent when not weighed down by the crap that is Twilight.  Unfortunately, the film itself is just rather dull.  It is extremely hard to root for his character, you actually want to see him fail, not succeed, yet he keeps moving up in the world and becomes a bigger and bigger douche the more power he gains.  This film can be skipped by most people unless you are really a big Twihard or just love period piece films.  It wasn't the biggest waste of time I've had this year, but it really isn't anything to write home about either.