Wednesday, June 9, 2010

MOVIE REVIEW: Cyrus

Guest Blogger Liz Parker is back from her advance screening of the movie "Cyrus".


Did she love it or hate it? Let's find out...

I was expecting good things from "Cyrus," as it had been selected for the Sundance festival, and had been ranked one of the most promising films there. However, it was too much of a "slice of life" movie, and the pacing was a little too slow for my taste.

John (John C. Reilly, "Cirque du Freak") has a rather depressing life, and his ex-wife of seven years, Jamie (Catherine Keener, "Percy Jackson and the Olympians"), has just told him that she is getting re-married. She invites him to a party with her and her fiancee, and it is there that he meets the beautiful Molly (Marisa Tomei, "Wild Hogs"), with whom he soon starts a relationship. There's one problem, however: she is very close with her 21-year-old son, Cyrus (Jonah Hill, "Get Him to the Greek"), whom still lives at home with her. John tries to get along with Cyrus, but Cyrus hates him from the get-go; in front of Molly, however, he "plays nice," and she has no idea what is going on. As John's relationship with Molly gets more serious, the animosity between him and Cyrus becomes more intense, and John must eventually decide if it is worth it to stay in this relationship.

I would say Maybe see this movie. The acting in the movie is great. My problem was its speed - it moved too slowly and I was frequently bored, even though the film is only about an hour and a half long. There are a few comedic moments, but nothing too obvious, and being that I thought the film was going to be a "screwball comedy" of sorts, I had assumed it was going to be funnier. This movie will probably be a breakout film for Jonah Hill, as he is used to being in such crazy comedies as "Superbad" and the recent "Get Him to the Greek," and I am betting the critics will love it as well. In my opinion, however, I thought that "Cyrus" could have done more with the decent material and script-writing that it had to offer.

"Cyrus" premieres in Detroit on July 2nd.


=========================================================
=========================================================
Liz Parker is a 2009 graduate of the University of Michigan. She currently works as an Assistant Medical Editor for a pathology website. Visit her at her movie blog Yes/No Films.

0 comments:

Post a Comment