Director: Jay & Mark Duplass
Starring: John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill, Marisa Tomei, Katherine Keener
Year: 2010
When you hear the names Reilly (Walk Hard, Step Brothers) and Hill (Knocked Up, Super Bad) together, you think comedy. And in particular, stupid comedy. Even the trailer for this movie prepares the viewer for a lot of laughs with a little love story thrown in for substance. What the movie delivers, however, is something else entirely.
Reilly plays, simply enough, John, a divorced editor who has never risen out of the depression of his failed marriage seven years earlier. Coerced into going to a party by his ex-wife, Keener (Being John Malkovich, Death to Smoochy), he strikes out with multiple women before making a connection with Tomei (Alfie, The Wrestler). The only problem is, her strange son, Hill, still lives at home, and he may be unwilling to share his mother with another man.
Given the actors and the plot, Cyrus would appear to be a simple comedy. It is anything but. Although crowded with laughs early on, it soon becomes a deep, honest, and heart-breaking film that has more relative things to say than most modern dramas. The acting from Reilly was amazing; I believed him in every moment and in every scene. The direction was interesting and original, but still very simple. Except for a few cliches that helped it fit into mainstream cinema, the film was clean, smart, and extremely honest.
If you were expecting slapstick, you may be disappointed. But if you passed on this film because of its actors, plot or trailer, than you ought to give it another chance. Cyrus will surprise you, and you'll be glad that it did.
My rating: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
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