Cyrano de Bergerac “has been adapted for the movies many times”, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian; this latest version is based on Erica Schmidt’s stage musical, and stars Peter Dinklage as the soldier poet hopelessly in love with Roxanne (Haley Bennett).
In the 1897 play, Cyrano has an “unfunnily phallic big nose”; here his “schnoz” is normal-sized, but he is convinced that Roxanne will never love him because of his short stature. So when she falls for the handsome but doltish and “hopelessly tongue-tied” Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr), Cyrano offers to ghostwrite Christian’s love letters, in the hopes of making her happy. The film is slow and solemn but redeemed by Dinklage, who unleashes the full force of his “natural charisma”.
He is good, but alas, the music is not, said Wendy Ide in The Observer. Composed by the rock band The National, the songs are forgettable and “virtually tuneless”; and the screenplay is little better: it wallows in the “tragedy of the story” while failing to convey Cyrano’s “parrying humour”. Without that “essential part of the character’s appeal”, it falls to the film’s “glorious scenery” (it’s filmed in Sicily) to do lots of the “heavy lifting”.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
But the real problem with Joe Wright’s film is that the main characters “feel like total strangers throughout”, although the script informs us that they can see into each other’s hearts, said Tim Robey in The Daily Telegraph.
That is partly down to their weirdly mismatched accents: Bennett speaks in an English one, while Dinklage has kept his “American growl”. But it is also because Roxanne comes across as an imperious snob. It’s a poor Cyrano in which we feel both the men are wasted on her.
-
What role will Trump play in the battle over Warner Bros. Discovery?Today’s Big Question Netflix and Paramount fight for the president’s approval
-
‘The menu’s other highlights smack of the surreal’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Education: More Americans say college isn’t worth itfeature College is costly and job prospects are vanishing
-
It Was Just an Accident: a ‘striking’ attack on the Iranian regimeThe Week Recommends Jafar Panahi’s furious Palme d’Or-winning revenge thriller was made in secret
-
Singin’ in the Rain: fun Christmas show is ‘pure bottled sunshine’The Week Recommends Raz Shaw’s take on the classic musical is ‘gloriously cheering’
-
Holbein: ‘a superb and groundbreaking biography’The Week Recommends Elizabeth Goldring’s ‘definitive account’ brings the German artist ‘vividly to life’
-
The Sound of Music: a ‘richly entertaining’ festive treatThe Week Recommends Nikolai Foster’s captivating and beautifully designed revival ‘ripples with feeling’
-
‘Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right’ by Laura K. Field and ‘The Dream Factory: London’s First Playhouse and the Making of William Shakespeare’ by Daniel SwiftFeature An insider’s POV on the GOP and the untold story of Shakespeare’s first theater
-
Henri Rousseau: A Painter’s Secretsfeature Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, through Feb. 22
-
Homes with great fireplacesFeature Featuring a suspended fireplace in Washington and two-sided Parisian fireplace in Florida
-
Film reviews: ‘The Secret Agent’ and ‘Zootopia 2’Feature A Brazilian man living in a brutal era seeks answers and survival and Judy and Nick fight again for animal justice
