My Review of "Cyrano"

Cyrano is a musical that came out in 2021. I actually didn't realize it was a musical until I started watching the movie. When they started singing I was a little weirded out. Oddly enough this movie has a lot in common with a famous movie I've seen a while ago.

This movie starts off in what I believe is France in the 17th or 18th century. A beautiful woman by the name of Roxanne is being taken to a theatre. It really sets the tone for the rest of the movie as we get acclimatized to the type of movie it will be. There are a lot of really nice set pieces that show the gritty glamour of the time they live in.

When arriving to the theatre she catches eyes with a young man named Christian. It's something like love at first sight but due to some unforeseen incident they are separated.

Finally the show is about to begin and that's when we get introduced to Cyrano. He's a poet and a fighter. With that he's a bit elitist. He tears down the act that's going to be playing there at the theatre. This causes a huge uproar with man that challenges him to a duo.

The fight ensues and Cyrano is the winner but with unfortunate consequences. Through self defense Cyrano was forced to kill the other man. Unfortunately for Cyrano this man had powerful colleagues and this catalyzes a toxic relationship with himself and a powerful man.

This movie's main emphasis is Cyrano's love for Roxanne though. Roxanne is infatuated with Christian asks Cyrano to help her win his heart not knowing Cyrano's feelings for her. Being so love with Roxanne, Cyrano reluctantly agrees and basically becomes the voice of Christian through love letters to Roxanne.

Cyrano has self confidence issues due to his height. He's pretty much good at everything he does but winning the heart of the woman he loves. In a way Christian is somewhat similar. He has everything but lacks a way to express his feelings to the woman that he loves.

There's a lot of fun to be had with this movie. In some ways we can see how this is a "catfish" situation or a "friendzone" situation. It also asks us questions of whether love is purely physical or through our understanding of the individual.

All of these interesting questions would pop up in my head but I would be immediately thrown off for certain aspects of this movie. First off the casting is really weird. I found the age difference between Cyrano and Roxanne to be a bit disturbing. She at times looks like a teenager and this man is in his late 40s. Then again that's part of the story too right?

I also had an issue with the inconsistent of how the characters were portrayed. I'm not a fan of some people putting on a fake accent and then others not doing the same when they live in a closed hegemonic group of people. It really pulls you away from the movie. Also the singing wasn't totally consistent as well. You can obviously tell certain actors can sing way better than others. It kind of sucks that we can't have a consistent level of quality.

Then again we also have the beautiful set pieces and art direction. This is a visually stunning movie. The pacing as well was pretty good. I didn't even mind too much of the singing. I would have been okay without the singing but that's alright.

With the singing it reminds me of the The Hunchback of Notre Dame. First of all it's a musical just like Hunchback. Then there's also the same themes as Hunchback. You see there are three individuals fighting for the hand of Roxanne much like the situation with Esmeralda. We even have the same characters. One visually unattractive (Cyrano/Quasimodo), one handsome man (Christian/Phoebus) and an evil man (De Guiche/Frollo). Even the set piece is the same as they're both around the same time in France. If I was a teacher I would have called out plagiarism.

Overall, I still liked the movie but with a few issues that plagued my full enjoyment. There are nuanced differences between this and the Hunchback movie but technically the two movies are very similar to one another. The most important thing is that it was a fun movie. Not something I would recommend to everyone though. I will have to give this movie a 6 out of 10. It just gets there at a little better than average for me.