Cyrano (2021)

This just doesn't work, and I think both the script and the casting of Dinklage are to blame. Cyrano doesn't feel like a cunning wit so much as a presumptuous jerk when he's bullying a popular (but mediocre) actor off the stage. I also didn't buy his ability to dispatch 10 soldiers and, apparently, neither did the director since some of that battle takes place off-screen. But, worst of all, I didn't feel the passion he was supposed to hold for Roxanne. Rather than hiding his longing with brittle humor, he just seemed perpetually mopey.

And then there are the songs: the too-infrequent and extremely forgettable songs. Roxanne and Christian have lovely voices, but the lyrics let them down. That said, one song -- having nothing to do with Cyrano, Roxanne, or Christian -- yanked this movie up an entire letter grade just by its existence. I was a blubbery snotty mess within the first minute of the song below, "Wherever I Fall, Pt 1."

 

C