Cyrano (Wright) 2021

I will be the first to admit that I generally don’t love movie musicals and films like Cyrano (affiliate link) ​are the reason why.

Cyrano (affiliate link) is a musical drama based on the play Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. Peter Dinklage stars at the title character who is in love with the beautiful Roxanne (Haley Bennett). When the pair meet early in the film, Roxanne professes that she has fallen in love at first sight and asks Cyrano to arrange a meeting with the man in question, the new soldier Christian played by Kelvin Harrison Jr. Cyrano is heartbroken at Roxanne’s confession, but agrees to set the meeting.
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Christian is similarly smitten with Roxanne, but fears he cannot adequately profess his love. Cyrano works with Christian to write love letters (professing his own love) that Christian can pass off as his own writing.

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As with many musicals, the film feels like it focuses too much on the musical numbers, and not enough on the rather thin plot. That said, there are plenty of beautiful set pieces throughout the film, and as something set in 16th century France, the costumes and locations are stunning. I also appreciated the choreography in the dancing scenes, some of them involving dozens, if not hundreds of extras often dancing in unison as the camera slides effortlessly through the throng.
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As for the film itself, I’m not quite sure if it wants to be a comedy or a drama, which aligns well with the character of Cyrano himself. As someone who does not look like everyone else, he often tries to hide behind his humor in public. In private, he expresses his feelings, attempting to earn Roxanne’s love through his earnest words.

For a movie musical, the music itself was not very memorable. The one exception was the heart wrenching “Wherever I Fall,” sung by the soldiers on the eve of battle as they write home to their loved ones.

In the end, despite the visual appeal of the movie, I can’t come to love it. As with most movie musicals, I think I would have loved this had I seen it as a live performance on stage where the limitations of space require more ingenuity and creativity to tell the story than on film where you can shoot in numerous locations and sound stages.

7 out of 10

Author

Jonathan Ytreberg is the main contributor and creator of The Oscar Project.