Cyrano (Peter Dinklage) believes that his short physical stature means that the woman he pines after would never love him back were he to tell her of his true affection. So when Roxanne (Haley Bennett) sets eyes on Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) and falls in love with him, Cyrano agrees to lend him his words to help woo her. 

Unusually for me I have been mulling over what words I could use to explain how much I loved this film for some time. The reason is that whilst I unabashedly loved Cyrano my wife was decidedly nonplussed by the experience. This means I feel it would be only fair to try and represent a balanced view rather than my unadulterated love. First some background to the film. 

Cyrano is an adaptation of Erica Schmidt’s 2018 musical based on Cyrano de Bergerac written by Edmond Rostand in 1897. In this version Cyrano’s large nose is replaced by his diminutive stature. 

The creatives involved in the film were very much a family affair. Writer Erica Schmidt is married to leading actor Peter Dinklage. Director Joe Wright’s partner is leading actress Haley Bennett. Whilst the music and lyrics to the musical are provided by U.S. band The National who are made up of brothers Bryce and Aaron Dessner with lead singer Matt Berninger who brought in his wife Carin Besser to assist. 

Peter Dinklage is fantastic as Cyrano, as consummate a sword fighter as he is a wordsmith. His singing voice is quite gravelly and it often becomes talking rather than singing. Haley Bennett on the other hand has an excellent singing voice and the music soars with her. Kelvin Harrison Jr. provides good support and another good singing voice whilst Ben Mendelsohn plays his now fairly standard villain with another talk singing voice. 

Joe Wright provides his usual directorial flair where he brings together scenes with large amounts of extras that he somehow weaves his camera through to great effect. The stand out is when Christian first joins the guard and the camera flies through their sword fighting drills as they sing and dance. 

The final piece in the artistic puzzle is The National and this is the difference I believe between my love and my wife’s indifference to Cyrano. I am a huge fan of the band and to me this music was an absolute treat for my ears. Since watching the film I have listened to the soundtrack multiple times and am particularly enamoured by ‘Someone to say’ and ‘Wherever I fall’. For me the songs were romantic and melancholy in equal measure. I do concede however that for some the joy I felt may be replaced by a sense of maudlin and a lack of a “catchy” number. 

But ultimately this blog is an outlet for my thoughts and I loved it.