Poor Robert Pattinson. Out of the three Twilight Saga leads, I think that he will have the most difficult time breaking away from the franchise as a bona fide actor, and he seems to believe the same. As such, the Sparkler has largely spent his hiatus time appearing in roles that are quite unlike the brooding, obsessively romantic Edward Cullen. I quite liked him in both Remember Me (as a bit of a rebel) and Water for Elephants (as the veterinarian who woos Reese Witherspoon), but it’s fairly obvious that he’ll never be described as a great actor, and there’s a decent chance that he’ll never be known as a good actor either. Of course, the bloke has a fair amount of charisma upon which to coast, so he’ll probably never be hurting for either roles or money. Emphasis on the latter.
Now, the teaser trailer for his upcoming Bel Ami movie (not to be confused with the European gay porn film company of the same name) has surfaced; and as much as I hate to admit this, Pattinson’s performance here looks moderately laughable:
Bel Ami is an adaptation of the 1885 novel by French author Guy de Maupassant. For the curious, the book is a pretty quick and easy read that doesn’t carry nearly the stuffiness as many other classic novels. In the movie, Pattinson plays the main character, Georges Duroy, who starts out as a poor ex-soldier but soon becomes a successful journalist and goes on to gain lots of power in society. Of course, it’s not really Georges’ power of the pen that causes his rapid ascent but, instead, his manner of seducing the wealthiest women (played by Uma Thurman, Christina Ricci, and Kristin Scott Thomas) in town. This is Pattinson’s big chance to play a bad guy, and while the social climber aspect of the character seems fairly believable as portrayed by Pattinson, I pretty much lost it when he started yelling and gnawing upon his own fist. Still, this is only a trailer so — who knows — maybe he’ll surprise us when Bel Ami finally hits theaters this fall. Then again, maybe not.
Photos courtesy of AllMoviePhoto
to be fair it is a terrible trailer. It is hard to judge the acting when the trailer is so melodramatic
He just can’t act.
he’s just repulsive – always
Tried watching the 2nd Twilight movie and I literally could not understand a word that the guy was saying. Seems like a nice enough guy, but as far as being a real actor outside of the twilight crap, I don’t think so
This is plain awful.
Sorry, I never got the appeal of RPattz beyond Cedric Diggory.
The trailer was great and the acting great as well. I know it’s going to be hard for people who have always put down his acting to accept this and will fight it to the bitter end. 🙂
People still have a hard time accepting that he got mostly positive reviews for Water for Elephants as well.
Already your stance has changed from he’ll never be any good to he might be good because saying he won’t kind of looks silly at this point. I guess we’ll see what the review for the next trailer will be. LOL.
He got negative reviews for WFE.
@chris
He got good reviews for WFE? Really? The reviews I saw said that he was flat and monotone, just like the other film, I’m too lazy to look up.
Face it fangirls, he can’t act, not well. I get that this is the guy that you spend all day masturbating to, but c’mon, he’s absolutely cringeworthy.
I don’t get it, all he does it make the same ‘I have to poop face’ and imitate Christopher Walken’s voice in every movie, oh yeah, that’s talent!
Once Twilight is over, this guy will be long gone, he’ll be lucky if he can get DVD movies.
lol that looks amusing, possibly good, even. and though i never saw any of the twilights or other rpatz movies, he has an undeniable screen presence. uma thurman is the one to be appalled at here. she’s like an energetic vacuum on the screen that sucks in all goodness from miles around. she should stick to wristwatch ads.
Looks like melodramatic nonsense, but maybe so OTT it will be watchable for a a laugh? Strangely impressive cast though, maybe it won’t be so bad. Boy does rock the frilly shirt and pantalons. The trailer is almost cut like a Twilight one, this could backfire.
Really? I thought the trailer looked pretty good, and I was actually surprised by how good his acting looked!
It’s hard to say based on the trailer. At this point I’m so over any Hollywood trailer they are so melodramatic. Remember for a long time everything was “the triumph of the human spirit”?
I didn’t think the hand knawing was so bad. This movie was filmed I think after the first or second twilight so it was before “wfe”.
Who knows. He might get better with his acting. Sometimes I think he does a good job and then other times in a movie I’ll be thinking ‘god show some emotion’.
I thought he did a good job in “Remember Me”. Does he even want to be an actor or did he sort of fall into it and he just is going with it…?
Forget Sparkles….Uma, Uma, Uma! So glad she’s back!
I have loved Kristin Scott Thomas ever since “Angels and Insects”. Despite this, I don’t think that I’ll be watching this. I’m really tried of lame actors screwing up period pieces. Also, some actors are just too modern looking to truly look like they fit in the past, if that makes any sense because I’m trying to explain my particular dislike for some actors playing in costume dramas (ex. Keira Knightley).
Ricci’s english accent is bad and distracting (it also messed up “The Man Who Cried”). Uma looks like she’s re-doing her part in the “The Golden Bowl.” I really wish they had Gaspard Ulliel play Pattinson’s part or Aidan Turner (from Being Human).
It looks like a guilty pleasure film. Thre’s something about seeing Edward 140 year old virgin being a big perv that appeals to me.
Every time I hear of this movie I think of the gay pr0n studio lol
The probblem with hollywood is they are too busy selling sex instead of talented artists.
While I wasn’t overwhelmed, I wasn’t horrified either. His performance seemed ok, at least from the tiny pieces that the trailer shows us. However, I DID have really low expectations. I thought I was going to see Sparkly Peen 2.0, which does not bode well for his overall reputation as an actor.
At least he didn’t look chronically constipated.
Aww, I feel bad for him, though. He really really wants to be a good actor…wants to be taken seriously…he should’ve never walked into that Twilight audition. I think he would’ve gotten work even sans-Twilight.
Hard to tell anything from that trailer, but it will be interesting to see him in a movie where he is not using an American accent.
On a related note, this weekend, I watched Red Riding Hood and was shocked at how bad every actor was in the film. My love Gary Oldman, Virginia Masden, Julie Christie and even Amanda Seyfried was worse than ever. It made me realize that the director, Catherine Hardwick must be the worst “acting” director on the planet and obviously has so much to do with how bad the tone and acting is in the Twilight movie. If she can make thespian actors look like sh*t, what hope did an inexperienced Pattison have in her movie?!
Pattinson is going to have a hard time shaking the double edged sword that is Twilight. At this point, when people see him in a movie the responses can be somewhat extreme – adoration or rejection – and that is before he’s even uttered a word. It’s going to take some work to change the mind of those that dismiss him straight away.
Ya know, I used to dislike both him and his pet Kristen but I’m starting to take Robert Pattinson a bit more seriously. He seems to be attempting new roles while she wallows in faux-teen angst. By the way, are they still together…?
And I’m a sucker for a high production value period piece. I think I’m gonna go see it.
I didn’t hate the acting. It wasn’t obviously awful, but wasn’t good. This looks kind of like a Dorian Gray rip off without the supernatural twist. Not worth seeing.
He may not be great or good, but he is still better than KS.
Edit, I am looking forward to this film, if not for him at least for the ladies.
I didn’t think the trailer showed him as a bad actor, but it’s a trailer. At least he is charming in interviews, and seems to actually try to act.
Looks like Uma Thurman has had some eye work done. From some angles, she’s barely recognizable.
I think he’s still green as an actor, i think he needs to take some acting classes too. But I also think people reflexively say he sucks even when there’s very little to judge by. I think it’s just fashionable to look down on him, regardless of what he does.
His acting seems to be good when he can voice in his native English accent – whenever he portrays Americans, he becomes monotonic & flat. His acting in the trailer seems okay, & I don’t remember him being horrible in Harry Potter, so I assume he’s just not very good at manipulating accents? It doesn’t make for a good actor, but it doesn’t necessarily make for a poor actor either. It’s just limiting.
He’s much better in English films where he plays offbeat roles. How to Be was a good flick, & I found him to be hilarious in it. I think it’s because he’s more of an awkward, goofy person in real life. When he tries to work the gorgeous leading man persona, it just doesn’t come out naturally. Comedy would be a more fitting venue.
I give him credit for trying different things, but he’ll only be known as the “Twilight guy.” If he finds long-term success after that series is done I’ll be shocked.
Jerry, why don’t you go read the reviews again? There were nearly 200 of them and more than 60% were positive.
The casting is great. It’s nice to see adult women on the screen in what look like well executed roles.
This looks like a low-budget Merchant & Ivory production. In the late ’80s to early ’90s, M&I were the best producer/director team who adapted classic novels into cinematic masterpieces. Check out “Maurice”, “Howards End”, and “Remains of the Day”. Unfortunately, they teamed up with Disney as their financier and distributor, and the quality of their films turned south in my opinion. They were using more Hollywood faces-English or not–who, like @jinni said, are not right for period films or they don’t have the acting chops, diction, body language for serious period drama.
Finding a bankable and young heartthrob who can handle big, classic roles is hard to find. Actor these days are not classically trained. Think of a young Timothy Dalton–he had it all. Now, I think Michael Fassbender takes the mantle.
@ miapatagonia
Timothy Dalton was absolutely amazing in The Lion in Winter; such a great performance especially when standing opposite Peter O’Toole. Not to mention, Catherine Hepburn.
@ almond
The Lion in Winter is in my Netflix queue. I’m still trying to find a 1991 film, “The King’s Whore” that he starred in opposite Valeria Golino–a European production that was in the running for the Palm d’Or in 1991. It looks super erotic and epic. Dalton plays an Italian monarch from the 17th-century and he wears a huge wig, but still looks delicious! My mom is still in love with him from the early 80s!
It looks like a pretty good adaption of the novel, imo. I don´t know, I have never seen Twilight, only Water for Elephants, and he was perfect as Jacob, so I don´t know why everyone is being so hard on the boy. He´s got potential.
I want to see him succeed simply because of how down-to-earth he seems, and how nice he’s been to his fans. He appreciates the crap that was twilight and recognizes it as bringing him to where he is now. I find that refreshing, and thus hope that he can get more acting cred. If this movie sucks, I’ll be more disappointed in the women, who are all good actors and should know better.