Cyrano – Movie Review
124 Minutes, Rated PG-13
Written by Erica Schmidt, based on the play by Edmond Rostand
Directed by Joe Wright
**Don’t forget to listen to the discussion portion of the review after you read this bit. Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend, and we’ll see you in 2022!**
Synopsis:
Too self-conscious to woo Roxanne himself, wordsmith Cyrano de Bergerac helps young Christian nab her heart through love letters.
Way back on December 2, I watched the third of three musical films in 7 days (after tick, tick…Boom! and West Side Story).
While Cyrano wasn’t on my radar until shortly before that date, I found the idea to be interesting, despite my general distrust of musicals (as has been recounted here many, many times).
Peter Dinklage, perhaps best known as Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones, stars as the titular hero, a warrior poet with an unrequited love for the beautiful Roxanne. Successful as he is in both his non-romantic endeavors–a fierce and unflinching soldier and an accomplished poet–his immense bravado conceals a near-crippling self-doubt more powerful than his abilities, all because he is… ashamed?… of his physical appearance, for which he is mocked by those who do not know him simply to make themselves feel superior.
Bullying is not a new phenomenon.
Approached by Roxanne and told she has found love, Cyrano believes–and hopes!–for the briefest of moments that his feelings might, at long last, be returned.
But alas, it is not to be, for Roxanne has fallen in love at first sight with Christian, a soldier newly arrived to Cyrano’s group.
Christian, similarly smitten, bemoans his own lack of ability in the poetic arts, his inability to speak gently to a woman such as Roxanne, when Cyrano hits upon a plan.
He will write letters to Roxanne–from Christian–and he will provide the face of the words she loves.
Simple, right?
You know it’s not. It can’t be. Ever.
While there are no toe-tapping, stay-with-you-for-weeks, musical earworms here, the musical is good enough to move the story along, without feeling overlong or overdone, or worse: unnecessary.
Neither Haley Bennett nor Peter Dinklage are asked to over-sing themselves, and so there is never a moment when you might think the movie might go too far, reach too high, for its own good…or the audiences’ pleasure.
In the end, the story of love is the driving force, and the music is there to support it, unlike some other musicals whose sole existence seems to be to function as extended commercials for soundtrack sales (coughcough The Greatest Showman coughcough).
Listen as we break this down a bit further for you.
Cyrano will hit theaters on December 31 (New Year’s Eve).
Cyrano stars Haley Bennett, Peter Dinklage, Kelvin Harrison Jr., and Ben Mendelsohn.
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