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08/05/21

2506 Crossing Circle • Traverse City • 231-941-0060 TraverseCity.MI@sylvanlearning.com 2506 Crossing Circle • Traverse City • 231-941-0060 18 • january 17, 2022 • Northern Express Weekly

CYRANO

Going into director Joe Wright’s (Atonement, Pride & Prejudice) new adaptation of the classic story of Cyrano de Bergerac, I was expecting all the magnificent period beauty and sophisticated swooning romance that followed. What I wasn’t expecting was that it would be a musical — or a musical penned by indie-cool rock band The National at that. It’s an odd and unexpected combination yet just beguiling enough to work, and the result is a fresh and gorgeous interpretation of a classic story that’s poetry for the senses.

The film’s biggest departure — other than that whole musical thing, of course — is that instead of an oversized schnoz being the thing that sets Cyrano apart, the film is retooled so that his physical difference is his height. Here, 4-foot, 5-inch actor Peter Dinklage plays Cyrano, a gallant but vertically challenged military man that can disarm with his sword as easily as with his words.

For many years he’s pined for his dear old friend Roxanne (Haley Bennett) yet believes he is unworthy of her love and that despite their closeness, she could never possibly love him. Meanwhile, Roxanne is being pressured into marriage to a cruel, creepy, and controlling duke (Ben Mendelsohn) while falling for Cyrano’s penniless new recruit, Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), immediately after first laying eyes on him. And so Cyrano finds himself in an impossible situation. In a desperate bid to remain close to Roxanne, he offers to help Christian, who is not exactly a wordsmith, to woo Roxanne through correspondence.

As far as the plot goes, Cyrano sticks fairly close to the story you know, but as is so often the case with tales that have long endured, it is also ripe for interpretation and provides a familiar canvas upon which Wright can unleash his creativity.

Following his disastrous foray into contemporary thriller literature adaptations (i.e., The Woman in the Window), Wright now is back where he is meant to be: crafting lush and transporting works of art (see also his adaptation of Anna Karenina) that embrace timeless works while also imbuing them with something bracingly new.

Shot during the pandemic, with the island of Sicily standing in for 17th Century France, Cyrano, as guided by Wright, creates an aesthetic that is unapologetically dreamy. Even the battle scenes, set against the backdrop of the active volcano Mount Etna, are some of the most sumptuous to grace the silver screen.

The film inhabits a space that is deeply indebted to a grand, old-fashioned musical spectacle but employs a slightly unconventional score of hip, low-key, and lovely ballads that amiably float in and out of the proceedings, delicately heightening emotion. And while the songs don’t dazzle nearly as much as everything else — the costumes, the performances, the production design, the cinematography are simply unmatched — they do lend themselves well to interpretation by not-so-spectacular voices like Dinklage’s.

But just like Cyrano, Dinklage remains perfect in all respects of the role that truly matter, delivering some of his most tender and aching work in a career of brilliant performances.

Poignant and poetic, there’s a palpable sense of enchantment here. That might be because romance is in the film’s DNA. Originally appearing as an off-Broadway play a few years ago, the screenplay (as well as the original live production) was written by Erica Schmidt, who found inspiration for her adaptation from none other than her husband … Peter Dinklage. Meanwhile, director Joe Wright applies a loving gaze to the film’s leading lady, who is also his wife … Haley Bennett. Together, they serve to give the film a loving intimacy that balances its oftenastonishing cinematic scope.