Bedazzled Reviews

An annoying schmuck sells his soul for seven opportunities to win the girl of his dreams, none of which turns out exactly as he'd wanted. Every office has an Elliot Richards (Brendan Fraser), someone so relentlessly, cluelessly irritating that co-workers will turn on their heels to avoid saying hi to him at the soda machine. Like all misfits, Elliot nurses a secret crush on an unattainable woman, in this instance co-worker Alison Gardner (Frances O'Connor). After botching an attempt to chat with Alison, Elliot utters those fateful words: "I would do anything to have that woman in my life." And suddenly he's face-to-face with a scarlet-clad temptress (Elizabeth Hurley) who says she's Satan and offers a variation on the standard Faustian pact. Elliot makes the usual wishes: He wants to be married to Alison; he wants to be rich and powerful; he wants to be a sports star, a sensitive man, a silver-tongued bon vivant (a sequence in which Elliot becomes a rock star was cut but appeared in the commercials). But the devil is in the crucial detail Elliot invariably forgets, so his fantasy unravels into a comical disaster each time. Purists will hate this loose remake of the 1967 film starring Dudley Moore and Peter Cook (who also scripted) just because it's there, but it's enjoyable on its own terms. Hurley's gleeful, hip-swinging performance as the Princess of Lies, whom she plays like a frightfully upbeat saleswoman who happens to be peddling perdition through self-indulgence, is genuinely witty and allows her to don a variety of provocative getups. Fraser and O'Connor slide effortlessly in and out of various editions of their pitchfork-crossed characters, and there's a small nod to the stars of the original film in the pair of hellhounds named Peter and Dudley.