Cyrano

The classic tale of unrequited love that is ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’ has been filmed many times before, but it has never been given the lush, tragically romantic dimensions that Joe Wright brings to this wonderful period-piece musical. Peter Dinklage (‘Game of Thrones’) stars as the eponymous lovelorn poet and swordsman, whose short stature (here replacing the usual overly large nose) convinces him he has no chance of winning the love of the beautiful Roxanne. When Roxanne and Cyrano’s fellow soldier Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) fall in love, Cyrano expresses the love he feels in the letters he writes under Christian’s name…

‘Wright’s splendid new adaptation presents “Cyrano” as 21st-century MGM musical. By enlisting Bryce and Aaron Dessner of the National to compose the songs—lovely, wistful pop ballads for which Matt Berninger and Carin Besser supplied the lyrics—“Cyrano” restores the show’s sense of poetry. At the same time, Wright, back on form and evidently reinvigorated by the pandemic, once again displays the kind of radical creativity that made early-career stunners “Pride and Prejudice” and “Atonement” so electrifying in their time.’—Peter Debruge, Variety