A Musical Without the Magic

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MOVIE REVIEW
Cyrano
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Genre: Drama, Musical, Romance
Year Released: 2021
Runtime: 2h 3m
Director: Joe Wright
Writer(s): Edmond Rostand (play), Erica Schmidt
Cast: Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennett, Kelvin Harrison Jr.
Where To Watch: In select theaters now, and available via VOD

Here we have a prime example of a film that could’ve been spectacular but somehow faltered repeatedly along the way to only be okay. Director Jow Wright has a complex history when it comes to his films; he has very much perfected the period piece with “Pride & Prejudice,” “Atonement,” and “Anna Karenina” (as well as all three films staring what can only be described as his favorite actress (Keira Knightley.) He has also ventured out of this genre into movies like the much-maligned “Pan” and the spectacular “Hanna” (starring one of my favorite actresses Saoirse Ronan. With “Cyrano,” he goes back to that familiar well of a period piece. However, the magic just isn’t there.

I won’t say that this is a bad movie, but it’s not a great musical, it’s not a great period piece, it’s not a great romance, nor is it a great drama. I can only say it’s slightly above mediocre; its saving grace was the acting (not singing) of Peter Dinklage in the titular role of Cyrano. Dinklage commands your attention every time he is on screen; with 86 screen credits and counting, there’s no doubt that he has a presence that’s hard to match. That’s, unfortunately, where the praise for the film goes from excellent to lukewarm. The opening scene set the bar pretty high, helped by the fact that I got to watch it at easily the most luxurious theater I’ve ever been in (if you’ve recently been to the Marcus theater in Bloomington, IL, you’ll know what I mean.) Sadly the rest of the film lost that magic quickly.

For a film about a poet, the lyrics throughout seemed to be missing, a friend pointed out that it felt more like grade school poetry than what we were supposed to be seeing. The best musical scene in the film didn’t even feature the main cast but was thanks to a surprise appearance from The Frames and The Swell Season singer Glen Hansard (Sam Amidon and Scott Folan were featured as soldiers in the scene as well.)

Ben Mendelsohn (De Guiche) had a few moments to shine, but the character was a toned-down version of a terrible person, and that kind of stole his thunder throughout. While Kelvin Harrison Jr. (Christian) felt one-dimensional in every scene, he’s meant to not be on the same level linguistically as Cyrano but was made to look inept in comparison. The real dagger in the case was Haley Bennett (Roxanne), who no one in their right mind could root for; we’re handed a very bland character that I found myself actively rooting against. To be fair, I don’t remember how the nature of that character compared to previous versions of “Cyrano,” but I couldn’t help and be on anyone’s team other than hers.

This unfortunate trap tends to occur when you do the Oscar Death Race; this film was nominated for Best Costume Design, and rightfully so. However, the film those costumes were in just didn’t match in quality. Overall I felt that the set design was well done; that is when I could see it; much of the film felt like it was shot with two or three flashlights and suffered any dramatic appeal because of it.

Part of my issue with the film is that this was one of the few that I had seen a trailer for and was very much looking forward to it because of said trailer. It felt like two entirely different films; I remember seeing the trailer for the first time and being incredibly excited to see this. After all, I have a weak spot for musicals in general. On the plus side, this was the last film I needed to see (not counting shorts) to have seen all of the oscar-nominated films this year.

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