15. Cyrano, dir. Joe Wright
I do worry: "am I only putting Cyrano on the Top 15 because nobody else liked or even saw this movie?" Then I start getting in my feelings about my integrity and biases, and whatever. Enough of that nonsense. The truth is: I feel bad for you all that you missed this. In Cyrano, there is a sequence of bakers in the morning kneading dough that's one of the most sensual visual metaphors of the year. Blunt and clumsy as all heck, sure, you cannot miss the point on the movie's mind, but it is effective. For proving that baking is sexy, Cyrano has to make the list.
And looking into my heart of hearts, Peter Dinklage's sad puppy dog face face trying to smile while holding back tears absolutely belongs in a celebration of 2022 in film.
Cyrano is an adaptation of a 1897 play by Edmond Rostand, which has inspired countless films, operas, and even plenty of other musicals. I've never seen any of them, so maybe this is the best version of tale, maybe it is the very worst. The 2022 film musical makes an enormous change to the story by shrinking its title character. Traditionally Cyrano has an enormous nose which creates his anxieties, but in this version, he has dwarfism. Despite being a heroic figure in this 17th century French town who can win duels both by sword and by anachronistic rap battles, Peter Dinklage's Cyrano believes he can never be physically appropriate for the love of his childhood friend, Roxanne (Haley Bennett). This leads him to become a mentor of a dashingly handsome young soldier, Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), who also loves Roxanne. This is a great love triangle dynamic, where one part of the trio is unwittingly the conduit for the romance between the other two. Any physical conquest is offset by emotional cuckoldry.
Now, I will admit that a lot of the Joe Wright take on Cyrano is edging dangerously close to being very lame. It is a costume period piece melodrama and also a musical, and Cyrano will not apologize for being any of those things. From the color blind casting to the very scenes themselves, realism is not a concern here. Joe Wright could not resist having boys in full foppish costume dancing merrily in Sicilian ruins. The music is not even all that great, to be honest. The rock band, The National, did a fine job conjuring the emotions of the characters in song, but very few audience members were humming the tunes on the way home.
Still, the romance on display in Cyrano is hard to resist. It is not cool, but it is beautiful. The primary trio of Dinklage, Bennett, and Harrison Jr. are all great. Dinklage can be the most dashing man in town but also the Saddest of Sad Boys. Haley Bennett is bringing real heat to a movie that would otherwise be painfully dry. You even have Ben Mendelsohn playing the usual Ben Mendelsohn role, as unpleasantly aristocratic as ever.
There is one scene that won Cyrano a place on this list and that would be the nighttime balcony scene. This is a classic opera construction, where the older man feeds the inept suitor his lines to the beautiful maiden upstairs. You expect the scene to go one way, with Christian and Roxanne somehow closer despite the physical distance between them. But then, Cyrano, from behind a wall, suddenly steals the scene, pushing Christian aside to sing with his own voice. I love this because it reveals so much. Christian discovers this is not his story. Cyrano finds an honesty in the darkness he could not give in the light. Roxanne is enraptured by the formless man before her, both Cyrano and Christian at the same time.
Dinklage has a hell of a baritone too, that doesn't hurt.
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