I'm always dubious when films are described as must-see but there is still a part of me that is quietly hopeful that it actually does live up to the label. So does Cyrus deserve such enthusiastic recommendations?
Well, it is definitely a slight step apart from the usual comedy fodder. For a start the premise is a little twisted.
John (John C Reilly) has been divorced for seven years but hasn't moved on. His ex is getting remarried and invites him to a party to try and get him to socialise. He meets Molly (Marisa Tomei) and they immediately hit it off.
All is going well until John meets Molly's 22 year-old son Cyrus (Jonah Hill) who still lives at home. Cyrus is all charm and accepting of his mum's new boyfriend. But the mother-son relationship is not conventional and John quickly begins to suspect that Cyrus is actually manipulating the situation.
Cyrus is definitely a dark comedy with plenty of unconventional fodder to laugh at and a few suitably uncomfortable moments. Jonah Hill surprised me, he was almost unrecognisable putting in a subtle performance as the slyly duplicitous Cyrus and Reilly does a great job as the depressed but trying and increasingly paranoid John.
And Tomei seems to be carving out a nice and refreshing little niche playing against the typical hollywood actress roles.
The premise works well, it is well acted, funny and awkward to watch as a dark comedy should be but must-see? Not quite. Very good but not that good.
Aggregated review scores:
Metacritic: 74% from the professional reviews and 6.3/10 from visitors to the site
Rotten Tomatoes UK: 81%
If it is the only film you are likely to see for a while, I'd say DVD but if not then yeh, I'd go and see it at the cinema. It appealed to my sometimes warped sense of humour.
Posted by: Rev Stan | 09/12/2010 at 09:05 PM
Go to the cinema good, or wait and rent it on iTunes good?
Posted by: Adam | 09/12/2010 at 08:56 PM