Review of Cyrus (2010) by Wrightm1 — 25 Jun 2013

A near-perfect balance of comedy and drama.

Many people do not like this film, and this is due to the fact that it was marketed as a laugh-out-loud comedy. Which it is not. Cyrus is a story of how a lonely man meets a lonely woman, who can't let go of her 21 year old child, who wants to stay at home forever. It is actually quite a dark and sad tale, that may seem like fun from the outset, but as the story progresses, the truth gets out in some heartbreaking scenes.

In a dramedy, the comedy has to hit as much as the drama, and it really does- especially in the first half, where the film focuses much more on that aspect- and it it's quite fun. But then as things start to go wrong, the performances suddenly turn up a notch, and you suddenly realize that these people are not just caricatures, but are people. There does seem to be a running theme of 'damaged goods', and how people sometimes don't need to be fixed etc.

The only problem I had with the film was that I wished it was a little longer, although I loved the ending, I thought it would have been nice to get a little more depth to some of the characters- especially Marisa Tomei's character, to get some insight into her past, and why the son and Mother are so inseparable.

This is not a comedy, but a small scale movie about moving on, and the difficulties of growing up, whatever age you are.