Bel Ami, Guy de Maupassant's scorching novel about sex, social climbing and more sex in Paris of the Belle Epoque, has proven a rich source for filmmakers. Donnellan and Ormerod's adaptation is the fifth feature alongside three TV productions and a couple of mini-series. All this activity raises the obvious question, what more can be said about the rat-cunning of Georges Duroy as it reflects our post-post-modern age?

Not a lot, as it turns out. The opportunity to reinvent or reclaim the novel as it impacts on contemporary society (and what an exploration that would be) is given over to bodice ripping melodrama with a surfeit of both ripped bodices and melodramatics as Duroy clambers to the top of French society. Nonetheless, Bel Ami remains effortlessly watchable and faithful to its source in depicting the moral cost of getting what you wish for.

“The most important people in Paris are women,” advises Clotilde (Christina Ricci) to the lust-sick Duroy (played with an unevolved, sulky charm by Pattinson). The impoverished former soldier can't believe his luck when the benevolence of an ex-military colleague leads him into the home, and soon after the arms, of three incredibly powerful women (Ricci, Uma Thurman, Kirsten Scott Thomas) who steer society from the passenger seat. He goes along for the ride and in the shortness of time, finds himself sitting in first class.

I aint saying he's a gold-digger, but Duroy's merciless rise to the top reveals little more than a carnal desire for position and wealth. He learns nothing of his value, nor that of those in his company and in many ways, that same slender view is reflected in the film itself. Pattinson's apparent inability to reveal more of his character's depth beyond seduction restricts our capacity to see what's happening beyond his occluded eyes, such that come the denouement, events resolve in an unsatisfying surprise.

Intriguing issues of emasculation, power politics and class war are sideswiped by sensual hysteria and melodramatic revenge. The distraction is compounded by Scott Thomas who drops an uncharacteristic clanger amid wavering performances. Bel Ami is a mixed plate or as an anxious Uma Thurman growled: “You complete imperfect man”. Indeed.

// COLIN FRASER
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