Director:Â Joe Wright
Cast: Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennett, Kelvin Harrison Jr.
Rating: 12A
Running time: 123 mins
Release date: 25/02/2022
Following in the recent footsteps of Steve Martin (ROXANNE) and Gérard Depardieu (1990’s CYRANO DE BERGERAC) comes GAME OF THRONES’ Peter Dinklage in CYRANO. This is a new big-screen musical adaptation, itself adapted from the 2018 stage musical by Erica Schmidt, who wrote the screenplay for director Joe Wright (ATONEMENT, ANNA KARENINA).
This new version of the film and your own appreciation and acceptance of it will of course stem from your own familiarity and love of the original 1897 play from Edmond Rostand. There have been numerous other adaptations over the years (the Martin film being one of the best loved of recent decades) and you may or may not have seen a few of the previous incarnations.
Essentially a story of misunderstanding and mistaken identity, CYRANO DE BERGERAC is the tale of gutsy soldier Cyrano (Dinklage), who demonstrates that size is no boundary when he battles in the street and theatre.
Cyrano’s focus is the beautiful Roxanne (Haley Bennett) who herself is in love with Cyrano’s fellow soldier Christian de Neuvillette (Kelvin Harrison Jr.). Christian wants to confess his love for Roxanne and recruits Cyrano, whom he admires for his poetic expression, but for Cyrano it is his way of attempting to gain her focus. However, waiting in the wings is dastardly villain and rival De Guiche (Ben Mendelsohn, ROGUE ONE) who is determined himself to gain Roxanne’s hand…
Filmed spectacularly on Italian locations during the recent global challenges by Seamus McGarvey, CYRANO does feel a little uneven in transition to the big-screen, with some action sequences working well sufficiently, but the musical elements seem to impose themselves over the dramatic moments.
The cast is fine, with Bennett reminding one of Jennifer Lawrence, but capable in her own right. Dinklage once again demonstrates a strong screen presence and Mendelsohn acquits himself as the key villain of the piece.
Works probably better within the proscenium arches, though.
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