If someone was trying to remember what the actor Rob Patterson looked like, and they asked you 'what is a film that Rob Patterson has starred in?', I am pretty sure most people are going to reply with 'Twilight'. For some reason everything to do with the Twilight franchise, including Rob (who plays the part of Edward Cullen), seems to gather a nicely rounded gang of hate in its wake, mainly of the male gender. Why is it? Who knows? But I am not here to debate such a trivial matter, but instead to talk about a new film starring Rob Patterson, called Bel Ami. My reason for raising the subject of Twilight is to simply say, despite all the hate aimed at Rob Patterson for being in this series, he is genuinely a fantastic actor. He's like a Chameleon. He can get popular for one film, then he can star in another film and he will play a different role, but he'll change his colour to suit that film perfectly. When you see him in Bel Ami, you don't think 'that's Edward from Twilight' or even 'that's Cedric Diggory from Order of the Phoenix' you see him and enjoy him for the character he plays in the film you're watching because he blends in so well with what is going on. I couldn't say the same for ol' Daniel Radcliffe (of Harry Potter fame) whose recent role in horror film The Woman in Black just made me think about Harry Potter (but that's just my opinion, so don't go mental). But anyway, the first thing I want to mention about Bel Ami is that Rob did a fantastic job at playing the role he played in it.
Bel Ami is an odd chestnut of a film. It is based on an old-ass French novel of the same name by some bloke called Guy de Maupassant who is probably really respected by clever people but I am kind of ignorant so I don't know who he is. It's about this nice little fellow called George Duroy (played by Rob Patterson) who starts off poor but slowly works his way up by becoming a journalist and shags a lot of married women and manipulates them (and their husbands as well) in order to become a pretty powerful individual. The three women who surround him (and get seduced by him) throughout the movie are played by the actresses Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Christina Ricci, who all play their roles incredibly well also.
I won't let too many spoilers go, in case your reason for reading this article is because you are actually considering seeing this movie, but let's say I don't think I've actually watched a film before where I hate every character (mainly because of how they are involved in the storyline). Bel Ami is a mixture of emotion that swings back and forth and you enjoy it all the time you are watching it, then suddenly you realise you've reached the ending and you're sitting in your seat, where you find yourself simply shrugging and saying 'meh'. The reason for this is simply the fact that the plot doesn't develop into anything extraordinary and repeats the same scenarios a little too much.
Overall, Bel Ami isn't a game changer and really doesn't bring anything new to the table, it's just a decent film, but something that I'd only recommend seeing once as it is ever so slightly forgettable. It definitely won't come up as a topic of conversation in years to come when you are 'nostalging' with your fellow bros over films from around this time period, but it is definitely a film that is worth seeing just for the hell of it if you are bored or whatever, try going to the cinema on a day when they do student discounts or something... but don't buy popcorn, as this film isn't worth stretching out your money for and if you are a student, I can assume you are not made of money. Also, never buy popcorn at Cineworld anyway, as their prices are nothing but blatant daylight robbery (see below).
