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Cyrano (2021)
The movie definitely has problems. but 2021's Cyrano is a sumptuously mounted, musical re-imagining of the Edmond Rostand play that is still worth watching thanks to the extraordinary performance by Peter Dinklage in the leading role. It should be noted that this review is coming from someone who has never read or seen the play and has never seen the 1950 film version with Jose Ferrer, that won him an Oscar. My only exposure to this work is the 1987 comic reworking of the story called Roxanne starring Steve Martin.
In this story, Cyrano (Dinklage) is a soldier and polished wordsmith who has always loved the lovely Roxanne (Hayley Bennett), but is too self-conscious to be direct with her because of his stature and the belief that he is ugly, though she considers Cyrano a close friend. Roxanne finds herself attracted to a soldier in Cyrano's regiment named Christian (Kelvin Harrison, Jr), who returns the attraction but his approach to romancing her is crude and boorish. Cyrano agrees to write a letter to Roxanne as Christian, a letter that captures Roxanne's heart so Cyrano and Christian decide to woo Roxanne together, through Christian's looks and Cyrano's words.
First let me say that the concept of this film is quite good. I've always felt Cyrano De Bergerac was a story that would work quite well as a musical. Though a lot of the songs are quite pleasant, the score by Aaron and Dessner is rather lakluster. The songs don't flesh out characters or advance story. There was a song called "Heaven is Defenseless" centered on soldiers writing to their loved ones that was moving and, at the same time, brought the movie to a dead halt. Sadly, I think this film would have been much more effective without the songs.
When director Joe Wright (Atonement) and screenwriter Erica Schmidt (the real life wife of Peter Dinklage) stick to the dramatic narrative, the film totally works. Loved Cyrano's opening scene in a theater when he reminds a hammy actor in a theater that he wrote him a couple of weeks ago telling him that he's a terrible actor and should stop was gold. The famous balcony scene, which is the hook upon which the story hangs, is heartachingly beautiful as is the scene where Christian comes to the realization that Roxanne loves Cyrano and not him.
The primary reason this movie is worth watching is the gut-wrenching, delicately layered, and consistently surprising performance by Peter Dinklage. Once again, Dinklage proves to be an actor incapable of giving a bad performance. Watch him in the scene where he learns Roxanne is in love with Christian and not him or that wonderful balcony scene, or the climactic encounter with Roxanne where he's still trying to keep his love for Roxanne a secret. Dinklage gives us a Cyrano who loves Roxanne with every fiber of his soul, but still can't put two sentences together whenever he speaks to her directly. This is another one of those performances that should be studied by acting students.
The film features breathtaking cinematography, art direction/set direction, and costumes, it's gorgeous to look at. Hayley Bennett completely invests in Roxanne, a character who is somewhat unsympathetic here. This Roxanne reminded me of Glenn Close' character in Dangerous Liaisons. Kelvin Harrison Jr makes a smoldering Christian and I loved Ben Mendelsohn a charismatic De Guiche. Remove the songs, and I would have added half a bag of popcorn to my rating, but even with the songs, Dinklage makes this movie worth watching...incredible performance.
The movie definitely has problems. but 2021's Cyrano is a sumptuously mounted, musical re-imagining of the Edmond Rostand play that is still worth watching thanks to the extraordinary performance by Peter Dinklage in the leading role. It should be noted that this review is coming from someone who has never read or seen the play and has never seen the 1950 film version with Jose Ferrer, that won him an Oscar. My only exposure to this work is the 1987 comic reworking of the story called Roxanne starring Steve Martin.
In this story, Cyrano (Dinklage) is a soldier and polished wordsmith who has always loved the lovely Roxanne (Hayley Bennett), but is too self-conscious to be direct with her because of his stature and the belief that he is ugly, though she considers Cyrano a close friend. Roxanne finds herself attracted to a soldier in Cyrano's regiment named Christian (Kelvin Harrison, Jr), who returns the attraction but his approach to romancing her is crude and boorish. Cyrano agrees to write a letter to Roxanne as Christian, a letter that captures Roxanne's heart so Cyrano and Christian decide to woo Roxanne together, through Christian's looks and Cyrano's words.
First let me say that the concept of this film is quite good. I've always felt Cyrano De Bergerac was a story that would work quite well as a musical. Though a lot of the songs are quite pleasant, the score by Aaron and Dessner is rather lakluster. The songs don't flesh out characters or advance story. There was a song called "Heaven is Defenseless" centered on soldiers writing to their loved ones that was moving and, at the same time, brought the movie to a dead halt. Sadly, I think this film would have been much more effective without the songs.
When director Joe Wright (Atonement) and screenwriter Erica Schmidt (the real life wife of Peter Dinklage) stick to the dramatic narrative, the film totally works. Loved Cyrano's opening scene in a theater when he reminds a hammy actor in a theater that he wrote him a couple of weeks ago telling him that he's a terrible actor and should stop was gold. The famous balcony scene, which is the hook upon which the story hangs, is heartachingly beautiful as is the scene where Christian comes to the realization that Roxanne loves Cyrano and not him.
The primary reason this movie is worth watching is the gut-wrenching, delicately layered, and consistently surprising performance by Peter Dinklage. Once again, Dinklage proves to be an actor incapable of giving a bad performance. Watch him in the scene where he learns Roxanne is in love with Christian and not him or that wonderful balcony scene, or the climactic encounter with Roxanne where he's still trying to keep his love for Roxanne a secret. Dinklage gives us a Cyrano who loves Roxanne with every fiber of his soul, but still can't put two sentences together whenever he speaks to her directly. This is another one of those performances that should be studied by acting students.
The film features breathtaking cinematography, art direction/set direction, and costumes, it's gorgeous to look at. Hayley Bennett completely invests in Roxanne, a character who is somewhat unsympathetic here. This Roxanne reminded me of Glenn Close' character in Dangerous Liaisons. Kelvin Harrison Jr makes a smoldering Christian and I loved Ben Mendelsohn a charismatic De Guiche. Remove the songs, and I would have added half a bag of popcorn to my rating, but even with the songs, Dinklage makes this movie worth watching...incredible performance.