Cyrano (2021)

Direction: Joe Wright
Country: USA

It’s great to see Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones, 2011-2019; The Station Agent, 2003) playing Cyrano de Bergerac in this new adaptation of the Edmond Rostand’s widely popular play by the hand of English filmmaker Joe Wright (Atonement, 2007; Darkest Hour, 2017). However, and considering the potential of the story, this tragedy turned stiff musical is surprisingly pedestrian, aiming big but leaving us with crumbs.

Originally written for off Broadway by Dinklage’s wife, Erica Schmidt, and appropriately photographed by Wright’s regular collaborator, Seamus McGarvey, the film never packs nearly as much of a wallop as the version of Jean-Paul Rappeneau, who directed Gerard Depardieu to critical acclaim in 1990.

The story revolves around the complex relationship between a brave, eloquent army officer named Cyrano (Dinklage), a radiant woman named Roxanne (Haley Bennett), and a handsome new cadet named Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr.). Bennett and Harrison Jr. don’t deliver, but Dinklage cannot be made responsible for the yawning. His performance reaches satisfactory levels. 

Sadly, the film is never as good as it should be, lacking energy to thrive and being stretched out by these terrible musical moments put together by the brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessler. This is the second miss in a row by Wright, following last year’s The Woman in the Window.

The Woman in the Window (2021)

Direction: Joe Wright
Country: USA

The elegant filmmaking style of Joe Wright, the British director of modern classics such as Pride & Prejudice (2005), Atonement (2007) and Darkest Hour (2017), becomes powerless in face of the tremendous destabilized screenplay of The Woman in the Window, an Hitchcockian psychological thriller that took its influence too far. Tracy Letts, who also stars, adapted A.J. Finn’s bestselling novel of the same name, but not even a great cast fronted by Amy Adams and including Gary Oldman, Fred Hechinger, Julianne Moore, Wyatt Russell and Jennifer Jason Leigh, was capable to make it convincing or stimulating.

Anne Fox (Adams) is an agoraphobic child psychiatrist living in Manhattan, New York. She loves to snoop on her neighbors. Recently separated from her husband, who took their daughter with him, Anne immerses herself in this noxious daily routine, which also includes alcohol and drug intake as well as some minimal interaction with her tenant, David (Russell), a sinister singer/songwriter turned handyman. When the Russells move into an apartment she owns across the street, she gets to know more about them - the controlling and temperamental Allistair (Oldman), his nosy and fragile wife Jane (Moore), and their sensitive 15-year-old son, Ethan (Hechinger). One day, from her window, she witnesses a murder in their house.

In addition to a synthetic central character, the weak intrigue and rigid dynamics place the film between a poorly investigative case and a phony state of paranoia. The flaws are significative throughout, ultimately leading to a more ridiculous than revelatory closure. I expected much more from Wright than just craftsmanship behind the camera. This is stale when it should be tight.

Darkest Hour (2017)

Directed by Joe Wright
Country: USA

The politically correct “Darkest Hour”, showcasing a memorable performance by Gary Oldman as the UK’s former prime minister Winston Churchill, is a weighty and eloquent historical drama film about a visionary leader whose ideas were not always well accepted or understood.

Director Joe Wright, an expert in period dramas (“Pride & Prejudice”, “Atonement”, “Anna Karenina”), returns to the right path after a terrible experience in the family/adventure genre with “Pan”. Teaming up for the first time with the screenwriter Anthony McCarten (“The Theory of Everything”), the filmmaker assures that his conversational ‘war’ film flows with an assertive and coruscating narrative.

In 1940, when the allies were attempting to strategize a plan to face the European invasions of Nazi Germany, the then British prime minister, Neville Chamberlain (Ronald Pickup), considered inapt by the opposition to defend the kingdom, resigns. It’s his right to point out a substitute, and his preference falls in Viscount Halifax (Stephen Dillane), who declines the offer. The only man tailored for the position that is available is Winston Churchill. However, instead of passive measures based on negotiations with the enemy, he vindicates a risky yet ambitious counter-attack plan to deal with the situation, which is particularly delicate in the French cities of Dunkirk and Calais, locations with stranded British troops. For him, in that specific case, peace means weakness, and therefore, he is ready to fight tooth and nail to convince everyone that his strategy is the most adequate.

Offering nothing but blood, toil, tears, and sweat, the confident Churchill, who despite irascible in his speech can be very humorous, takes his responsibility seriously and manages to make the skeptical King George VI (Ben Mendelsohn) a believer of his cause, as well as the entire Parliament.

Despite counting on the support of his wife, Clementine (Kristin Scott Thomas), and the professional dedication of his new typewriter, Miss Elizabeth Layton (Lily James), of whom he grew a special fondness, Churchill has some difficult moments in which he almost disintegrates emotionally. Wright’s proficient visual sequences effortlessly display this human frailty, as genuinely as he portraits his fiery political side. The camerawork is precise if expeditious at times, moving from one face to another with a glorious sense of inquest.

Gary Oldman, giving an Oscar-worthy performance, has the perfect command of his role, even when the scenes are not so incisive, like when Churchill decides to make contact with the people in the London Underground.

“Darkest Hour” is, in truth, a polished war film where the action is purely wordy. And it worked!