Cyrano (2021)

Directed by Joe Wright. Starring Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennett, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Ben Mendelsohn, Bashir Salahuddin, Joshua James, Monica Dolan, Anjana Vassan. [PG-13]

Engaging, picturesque spin on Edmond Rostand’s classic play transforms the production into a lavish musical with its own stage origins (by Erica Schmidt, who also penned the screenplay). The titular large-nosed poet and duelist is reimagined as a self-conscious dwarf played with soulful sorrow and fire by Dinklage, pining for close friend Roxanne (Bennett), who has been lovestruck by a handsome but inarticulate guard (Harrison) and is lusted for by a sinister duke (Mendelsohn). The musical structure is unflattering to the story—the villain song (“What I Deserve”) has no build-up and pours out into an anti-climax, while a song showing soldiers writing letters (“Wherever I Fall”) feels like “thesis padding” so late in the show without focus on the main characters—and Dinklage’s untrained voice leaves something to be desired. On the other hand, director Wright has long had a sybaritic passion for showy camera technique, as fond of swooping shots of Sicilian architecture (standing in for 17th century Paris) as he is of sensuous closeups of the leading lady, and his style is well-suited for the genre, decadent without the off-putting aggression of frantic cutting or sledgehammer underscoring. Songs and score composed by members of rock band The National (Aaron Dessner, Bryce Dessner & Matt Berninger).

73/100