Director Joe Wright envelops moviegoers in a symphony of emotions with music, romance and beauty in "Cyrano", a re-imagining the timeless tale of a heartbreaking love triangle. A man ahead of his time, Cyrano de Bergerac (Peter Dinklage) dazzles whether with ferocious wordplay at a verbal joust or with brilliant swordplay in a duel. But, convinced that his appearance renders him unworthy of the love of a devoted friend, the luminous Roxanne (Haley Bennett), Cyrano has yet to declare his feelings for her--and Roxanne has fallen in love, at first sight, with Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), who is, himself, at a loss for words when it comes to wooing a young woman.
Others to round out the cast are Ben Mendelsohn as DeGuiche, Monica Dolan as Marie, Bashir Salahuddin as Le Bret, Joshua James as Valvert, Anjana Vasan as Sister Claire, Ruth Sheen as Mother Marthe, Glen Hansard as Guard, Mark Benton as Montfleury and Richard McCabe as Priest.
This was directed with finesse and pathos by the incomparable Joe Wright ("Pride & Prejudice" '05, "Atonement" '07, "The Soloist" '09, "Hanna" '11, "Anna Karenina" '12, "Pan" '15, "Darkest Hour" '17, "The Woman in the Window" '21) plus TV, shorts and video shorts. As with this filmmaker's resume, he has proven himself to be the quality director that he is. He is fully aware of how to encourage his actors to be able to emit the emotions that is needed for any scene at hand, and this film is no exception. Dinklage's Cyrano was spot on! Certainly he is a fine actor, but this was also fine direction involved as well. If you like his brand of directing, his "Stoner" is in pre production at this point. It was written by a virtual newcomer to feature films, Erica Schmidt, based on Schmidt's stage musical adaptation, which is also based on the stage musical adaptation "Cyrano de Bergerac" by Edmond Rostand. Schmidt certainly could be a natural screenwriter, but since this screenplay was based on her own previous work, it would lead one to believe that this aspect gave her a 'leg up' in being able to convey this story on screen as well as she was able to do. I would love to see her write other work to see if she truly has what it takes to create a taut screenplay. Was this a perfect script? Absolutely not! However, considering Schmidt's lack of screenwriting, this was incredible. There were a couple of small areas of chopiness in this script, but all in all, this was a story that is written as well as most seasoned writers. This is nominated for an Academy Award for best costume design by Massimo Cantini Parrini which is a deserved nod. The photography by Seamus McGarvey asc/bsc was also beautifully shot as well.
This film was actually released in selected theaters on 12-17-21 so as to be able to be considered for an Oscar, but it was then released as a wide release on 2-25-22. So, having to search out where it was playing, I found it then went to view it, and it was certainly as well honed as I expected. If you like the story, this is one of the best versions of the timeless, beloved story, and with all that is going on in the world right now, we need this kind of film so we can truly escape into it.
Out of 4 Stars: 3.5 Rated: PG-13 123mins.
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