Cyrano (2021) We're thrilled that Peter Dinklage finally landed his very own star vehicle.....like just about everybody else who's seen his work, we're a fan of this actor.......who always attacks his roles with a gifted sense of nuance and intensity......
Yes, the idea sounds intriguing enough......a Cyrano de Bergerac whose affliction is no longer his lengthy nose but his diminutive height. And we could tell Dinklage latched on to this project as one of the most plumb roles every created for an actor.
But we surely wish he's found a better vehicle than this one.
Not that a 'Cyrano' put to music is a bad idea......Andrew Lloyd Webber, in his heyday, might have had a field day with this material, drenched in aching unrequited love and feverish melodrama.
But the composer and lyricist here fall nowhere near that level. The music score here is pasted on to the film like bland wallpaper.......when songs wander into this movie, a few of them sound fleetingly pretty but they're all so bland you could forget them while you're still listening to them.
And what little choreography appears is fairly ludicrous.......regimented swaying that resembles the much ridiculed dance numbers of the woeful 1973 musicalized "Lost Horizon".
To make things worse, Dinklage must sing. While he makes a valiant attempt to carry a tune, you can sense his embarrassed struggling in every note he hits. And that's enough said about the music.
His performance as 'Cyrano', as we expected is nothing less than a show stopper.....he's dashing, witty, romantic, and when provoked, one hell of a fiercely lethal swordsman. If we graded this film on his work alone, we'd serve up 5 stars.
But ultimately, he's undone by the film itself......slow, dull and afflicted with a blah, unmemorable music score.....making it a grinding 1 star (*) slog to get through.
Hope springs eternal in showbiz, so we'll hope Peter Dinklage at last finds a film worthy of his prodigious talents.
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