Set in early twentieth century France, Cheri is a love story with a difference. It’s protagonists are aging Parisian courtesan Lea de Lonval (Michelle Pfeiffer) and the young son of her former peer Madame Peloux, the eponymous Cheri (Rupert Friend). Having spent much of her life fending off the dangers of love, Lea refuses to accept the situation she has become embroiled in with Cheri. Likewise he, as a libertine and general Lord of leisure himself, does not easily believe that the pair are in love. But as the big age difference between the pair leads them both to go their separate ways, the truth begins to surface and it is far from welcome.

It might sound pretentious at first, or even raise small concerns that it could be another by-the-numbers period drama. But it definitely is not. The bright and beautiful costimes of the period create a lively atmosphere that is suppplemented by superb settings and a group of razor-sharp dialogues. The characters are so far detached from the usual self-absorbed, emotionally gushing characters that inhabit many a Jane Austin that you might be forgiven for forgetting the genre of the piece completely. It may look of the time, but many negative stereotypes attributed to prior outings are deftly avoided.

What’s more, great performances from Pfeiffer and Friend create a tension that encapsulate the arrogance, the denial, and the carefully (if often badly) concealed pain that they both display throughout their doomed affair. Kathy Bates even provides a decent sideshow as the less gracefully aged courtesan Madame Peloux, and provides some amusing asides through some of her more ostentatious items of clothing.

Cheri ticks all the boxes you would want for a period drama, it has great costumes, respected big names and lots of quick-paced ripostes infused with plenty of playful subtext. But it is also a film that provides a little more, slowly inching its way through the general subjects of love and age into greater realms of discourse of isolation, frivolity and human interaction. That it does these things at all is worthy of praise, but had it done them more successfully we may have had a masterpiece on our hands. Sadly, some of the themes fade out with unsatisfactory endings as the characters become self-indulgently depressed, and we are given very little time to see the consequences of their doomed affair after it’s conclusion.

Regardles of these problems, Cheri is a great film that is easy on the eye and challenging to the mind: worth watching whether you want something to sit in on and switch off, or something to fire the up the grey matter.