Review of Cyrus (2010) by Leonard H — 09 Jan 2012

Throughout the 2000s there has been a growing indie sub-genre known as Mumblecore, which have focused on making realistic, character driven films, that focus on relationships rather than developed plots, typically have lower budget production value and feature naturalistic acting often achieved through non professional actors and heavy improvisation. However no members of this small group have broken the rules more than Jay and Mark Duplass who with their earlier film Baghead and now Cyrus have created much bigger budget pictures with professional and even big name actors in the cast. Indeed Cyrus featuring two comedy giants at the moment and being advertised much more heavily than previous ones. Seeing as how the first "mainstream" Mumblecore movie has been met with trepidation and even hatred from some critics it's well worth examining if this little slice of awkward is for you. Is this a fairly solid drama that's basically Coen Brothers without the quirkiness? Or is it a boring and unforgiveable turd? Let's take a creepily attached look.

A lot of dislike for this movie it's my belief comes from the potentially humorous and whacky set up and the way it was advertised. John Kilpatrick (John C. Reilly in one of his best serious roles in a while, where he exhibits a bumbling likeability) is a lonely man who's only friend is his ex-wife Jamie (Catherine Keener, who is much put upon but doesn't get a lot of resolution) until she drags him to a party and he meets the beautiful, vivacious and accessible Molly Fawcett (Marisa Tomei, who believably is all of these things as she became famous for). Naturally there is a catch though as her 20 something year old son, the overweight, unemployed and prone to anxiety attacks Cyrus (Jonah Hill, this may be the first serious thing I've seen him do and he does it well, with subtlety though you still loathe him) who is creepily attached to his mom and not giving her up without a fight. It will be an understated battle of wills as John with the help of poor Jamie who is trying to get re-married herself tries to determine just how normal this seemingly perfect woman and especially if she's worth the trouble of her son.

This is a cringe worthy movie, not that you'd expect anything less from essentially a study of two unhealthy co dependent relationships, one mutual and one not so mutual. Though purposefully so, the movie is hard to get through both from the awkwardness of the dialogue and the embarrassingly pathetic nature of the two main characters. But if it makes you feel any better I can ruin it and say the ending changes a lot of that, and redeems the unlikeable, awful behavior of a lot of the characters and makes it a genuinely warm and touching film. The humor ranges from drier than the Sahara to nonexistent but it doesn't need to be here, despite its budget the movie is shot well, the performances while not career defining are convincingly natural and though there is the inevitable and painful falling out they all have such romantic and otherwise realistic chemistry together it contributes the warmness the ending leaves. Particularly Jonah Hill delivers in the emotional if not exactly scenery chewing finale. So what didn't sit write with some people?

The set up to this movie is a potentially gag filled and over the top comedy along the lines of Stepbrothers. Seeing as how movies like this are what John C Reilly and Jonah Hill are most famous for it's not unreasonable people would go into this movie expecting such things and instead be bewildered by a strangely paced indie movie. Oh and that's how it was advertised, whoops! Cyrus was shown in trailers using the bare minimum of dialogue to establish the premise so as not to show how awkward and not goofy it was meant to be. Similarly one of the only scenes shown in the trailer is one where Reilly sees Jonah Hill standing in the middle of a dark hallway holding a kitchen knife a strange scene taken out of context to seem like he's blatantly threatening him. Thus Cyrus became a victim of poor advertising. Don't be fooled, Cyrus is not laugh out loud comedy, it's barely a comedy of any sort but I wholly enjoyed it. I didn't take much from it, nor did I have any desire to see it again but it comes highly recommended for a unique and one time viewing.