Cinematic Releases: Cyrano (2021) - Reviewed

Courtesy of MGM

Edmond Rostand’s iconic 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac, loosely based on a real French nobleman whose dueling, poetic and musical skills are offset by his exceptionally large nose which makes him self-conscious and doubtful of his abilities to romantically woo a woman into his life.  Complicating his relations with his distant cousin Roxanne whom he longs to express his true love for, Cyrano befriends a fellow soldier named Christian who is also in love with Roxanne but is inarticulate and unable to express himself eloquently.  Soon however a ruse begins when Cyrano begins writing letters to Roxanne as Christian, boosting his character while also secretly expressing his forbidden love for her through the letters. 

 
This triangular tragic love story by now has been adapted faithfully as well as loosely several times over the course of the century throughout the world, the most notable examples coming to mind include Roxanne with Steve Martin as Cyrano and an official French version with Gerard Depardieu in the leading role.  Also popular on television, radio, opera and musical theater, the play has seen numerous iterations across various forms of media and likely many more for some time.  Which brings us to Erica Schmidt’s stripped down 2019 musical version of the story, simply called Cyrano.  Aided by music by the band The National, the key difference in this newer version of the story is that instead of having a long nose he is played by the director’s husband dwarf actor Peter Dinklage.
 
Just a couple of years later amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Dinklage, Darkest Hour director Joe Wright and his wife-actress Haley Bennett as Roxanne joined forces to bring Schmidt’s new musical version of Cyrano de Bergerac to the screen in one of the year’s best and most impassioned tragic love stories few people if anyone actually saw.  Despite a sumptuous production shot on location in Sicily during the pandemic followed by further COVID delays, the film came and went without a hitch and sadly flopped alongside the Foo Fighters’ rock horror-comedy Studio 666.  Hopefully now with a recent streaming release followed by an Academy Award nomination, this Detroit Film Critics Society Best Picture winner will have a chance to flourish and develop a cult following.

 
In this version, the character of Cyrano played by Dinklage is at once a further extension of his swashbuckling swordplay in Game of Thrones as well as a heartfelt and emotionally driven musical performance unexpected from the actor.  Unquestionably the most famous dwarf actor probably in the world right now and among the most gifted performers of his time, Cyrano is clearly before, during and after production onscreen a deeply rooted passion project for Dinklage and you feel his every emotion and vocal intonation onscreen in this.  It would be an extraordinary one-man-show were it not for the impassioned signing and performing from his co-star Haley Bennett who comes very close to surpassing his acting.  Both actors belt out their songs with full throated passion from the heart, reportedly captured on set in real time rather than dubbed in post, and the energy generated by these two on set is almost radiant.
 
Shot handsomely with breathtaking wide shots looking down on Italian architecture with dancers moving about it, lensed by longtime Joe Wright stalwart Seamus McGarvey, the feel of the world of Cyrano is immersive yet much of this closes in on tight close-ups of the actors’ faces, giving the proceedings another layer of intimacy.  Special attention also goes to It Comes at Night actor Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Christian, the unlikely hero caught in between Cyrano’s love for Roxanne.  A prolific actor, this is one of his most impassioned performances yet.  Only Ben Mendelsohn, always playing a villain, makes the character of the Duke a bit cartoonishly evil but nevertheless the ensemble acting, direction and choreography at play to The National’s stirring, haunted original music round out Cyrano as one of the most emotionally involving musicals of 2021 easily. 

 
A years-in-the-making labor of love for both creative couples involved, Dinklage-Schmidt and Wright-Bennett, the passion on and offscreen is infectious.  Though a story that has been done to death with the dwarfism twist giving it a new fresh coat of paint, Cyrano is without question an actor-director’s movie where you sense a certain degree of creative freedom being granted the actors who display a remarkable about of impassioned emotional weathers onscreen.  Whether or not this catches on with the moviegoing public remains to be seen (Wright’s Pan still flies under the radar), but for my money this was one of the strongest films of the year, a unique and fresh spin on a timelessly retold romantic tragedy.

--Andrew Kotwicki