Review of Cyrano
Cyrano (2022) Dir. Joe Wright
Joe Wright (Darkest Hour) returns after the fairly disastrous thriller The Woman in the Window with a musical take on the 1897 novel Cyrano de Bergerac. Adapted from the 2018 stage musical, Wright’s previous stodgy apartment-based flick is thankfully forgotten in a couldn’t-be-more-different lavish period drama sing-a-long.
Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones) plays lead Cyrano de Bergerac who famously has feelings for the upper-class Roxanne (Haley Bennett from The Devil All the Time) but she already has affections for another man.
The film’s exotic Italian location (shot in lockdown Sicily) draws us into an opulent world with costumes and make-up not seen as glamourous as this since Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette (2006). And it perhaps contains more powdered wigs than Dangerous Liaisons and The Favourite combined!
The movie harks to its stage origins with Cyrano introduced in a theatre before his wistful poetry (sometimes in song, sometimes not) entertains the crowd but leads to a deadly sword fight. The two men exchange not just blows but words. This keeps the film’s literary allusions at the forefront as well as covering the novel’s themes of metaphorical language and physical appearances.
Kelvin Harrison Jr. plays Christian de Neuvillette, the man Roxanne has her sights on and as a little person, Dinklage’s own physical trait acts as the barrier he feels is preventing him from sharing his own fondness for her. However, his talent as a wordsmith leads him to assist Christian in his wooing despite his own feelings.
Dinklage is a fantastic presence holding your attention whenever he’s on screen much like he did I last year’s I Care A Lot (our review). His “singing” voice is well, perhaps not so mesmerising but thankfully it’s no Russell Crowe Les Mis ‘howler’. To be fair, his untrained but strangely compelling vocals sit well with his character. As per the novel he’s a speaker of the common tongue and his gravelly tones reflect Cyrano’s membership of a lower, but no less eloquent, class.
After finding huge melodic “bangers” in the recent Tick Tick Boom, the songs in Cyrano are probably the least memorable part. If I was being very harsh, at times the film simply stood on its own feet well enough without them. That said, they are weaved in the narrative well enough and check out “Every Letter” and “I Need More” (listen on YouTube) which stand out as two of the better ones..
Dinklage is also given multiple sword fights, plenty of poetic dialogue and excels at both the serious and funny moments of the story. And as we push forward, secrets are quarrelled over, war is fought and tragedy strikes on more than one occasion.
Ben Mendelsohn as De Guiche adds a bit of pantomime villain spice and the whole thing hangs together solidly and is best when it knows (nose?) to focus on Dinklage’s big talent for comedy and drama. The beautiful cinematography is in contrast to Wright’s murky and cheap-looking previous film and Cyrano goes a long way to erasing that misstep in his otherwise solid body of work.
A movie morality play with melodic prose, Cyrano is a handsome production and an ode to classic musicals that use a big budget to create grandiose sequences without forgetting tender moments. And with Dinklage himself talking passionately about his own struggles with his condition in the past, this satisfying film mirrors the actor’s integrity in doing things on his own, and very successful, terms.
★★★½☆
Michael Sales
