Author: Natalie Teasdale

I want to share with other movie fans those amazing films that get under your skin and stay with you for days: the scary ones, the funny ones; the ones that get you thinking. With a background in creative writing, photography, psychology and neuroscience, I’ll be focusing on dialogue, what makes a great story, if the film has beautiful creative cinematography, the soundtrack and any movie that successfully scratches the surface of our existence. My aim is to always be searching for that ultimate movie, to share what I’ve found to be interesting (whether it be a great soundtrack, a great director or links to other information of interest) and to give an honest review without too much fluff. BAppSci in Psychology/Psychophysiology; Grad Dip Creative Arts and Post Grad Dip in Creative Writing. Founder of GoMovieReviews.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Rated: M

Directed by: Tom Gormican

Written by: Tom Gormica & Kevin Etten

Produced by: Nicolas Cage, Mike Nilon, Kristin Burr p.g.a., Kevin Turen

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Sharon Horgan, Ike Barinholtz, Alesssandra, Mastronardi, Jacod Scipio, Lily Sheen, with Neil Patrick Harris and Tiffany Haddish.

‘You’re a fucking movie star and don’t you forget it.’

Massive talent is a clever movie because it has all the humour of the Nick Cage swagger, yet layered with Nick as Nick, then Nick writing a script about the movie that is Nick, which is an, ‘adult drama’ about the friendship of two men, that is to say Nick being invited to the house of Javi (Pedro Pascal), a supposed murderous weapons dealer, in Mallorca for his birthday.

For $1 million Nick hopes the request isn’t for anything more than a party invite.

Turns out Javi has a script he wants Nick to read.

He’s a huge fan.

They get along.

It’s like kids hanging out that click and know they’re going to be best friends.

It’s good fun with some decent belly laughs along with the clever fold of story over the actor that is Nick. He evens has an alter ego of himself as young Nick – ‘Never shit on yourself.’

There is more to the story of the film then the Cage-factor with kidnapping and cartels set on the coast of Spain.

Family drama gets involved with the ever suffering, thank-god-she’s-in-my-life ex-wife, Olivia (Sharon Horgan) with daughter Addy (Lily Sheen), ‘she thought Humphrey Bogart was a porn star.’

There’s some great dialogue here and Nick’s little flicks of the head and self-obsession in therapy with said family is gold. As is the sincerity of Javi’s fandom seen in his wide-eyed star-struck regard of Nick.

I felt like the film goes on a bit at the end (a bit like this review, but never shit on yourself ; ) and the soundtrack gets jaunty, letting down the tone down at times. But a good entertainer with some clever thrown in that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

The Northman

Rated: MA15+

Directed by: Robert Eggers

Written by: Sjón, Robert Eggers

Produced by: Mark Huffam, Lars Knudsen, Robert Eggers, Alexander Skarsgård, Arnon Milchan

Starring: Alexander Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe and Björk.

‘We thirst for vengeance but cannot escape our fate.’

The Northman is set in a time when the gods are worshiped with blood and villages are plundered, the people chattel, either killed or taken as slaves.

Only the strong ones survive the pillaging. And if they live to arrive at their next destination, most wish they’d died in their homes.

The film opens with stencil against the grey imagery of ash billowing, belching from a volcano. It’s a brutal black and white world until a child, young prince Amleth (Oscar Novak) calls out: his father, King Auvand (Ethan Hawke) has returned home.

The King and Queen Gudrún (Nicole Kidman) reunite, but not for long.

After King Auvand is betrayed and killed by his half-brother, Feng (Claes Bang), Amleth escapes, swearing to avenge his father and to free his mother.

The film runs in chapters so Amleth grows, becoming a wolf (Alexander Skarsgård). Now he’s the brute, pillaging villages and talking slaves. Until he’s reminded by a Seeress (Björk) of his promise of vengeance.

There’s a touch of magic in the story telling by Robert Eggers, with expansive scenes of Nordic grasslands, black sand with running rivers and the quiet of snowflakes falling. The constant play of colour sets the mood of the film, with the black and white, the stark, to show the harsh fight for survival, to the red of fire, to a rebirth of green and new life.

The thread of the gods runs through the film like swords run through guts and throats and already cut-off noses; the Valkyrie rides a white horse into the heavens and the white-haired Olga (Anya Taylor-Joy), whom Amleth is destined to meet, can talk to the earth and evoke the wind.

The story’s about fate and the gods and family, betrayal and survival.

There’s a flair of the dramatic that needed strong performances to hold the push of violence and drama and magic. And Eggers achieved his vision – Kidman and Skarsgård particular highlights, with Willem Dafoe made for the role of Heimir the Fool – who’s, ‘wise enough to be the fool.’

The dramatic scenes have flair but are played with just enough restraint to add the right gravitas to the dialogue.

The violence too was intense but held back enough so as not to be disgusting but to allow a harsh reality.

Overall the best way I can describe, The Northman is a film of vengeance that is both brutal and beautiful.

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Rated: MA15+

Directed by: Daniels (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert)

Produced by: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, Joe Russo, Anthony Russo, Jonathan Wang, Mike Larocca

Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Jenny Slate, Harry Shum Jr., with James Hong and Jamie Lee Curtis.

‘No time to wait’.

Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) and Waymond Wang (Ke Huy Quan) own and run a laundry they live above, in a small apartment with their daughter, Eleanor (Stephanie Hsu) and elderly father (James Hong).

Evelyn sits at the kitchen table, sifting through paperwork. It’s time to submit their taxes.

A mundane existence. But seen like life viewed through a mirror. So even at the beginning, the film feels otherworldly.

That feeling builds as the film circles around again and again, so the sign of a bagel becomes significant, a fanny pack with a fluffy pig hanging as an ornament becomes a weapon, only to reappear later as a tattoo. Or the mispronunciation of the title of a movie, Racoontouille (instead of, Ratatouille) becomes a reality.

The thought put into the making of this film is seen in the detail of creating this infinite multi-universe where the characters jump from one dimension to the other. ‘Verse jumping’ gives them the ability of their other self in the another dimension. So, need martial arts? Verse jump to a universe where your self has that skill. All it takes is a particular act, a touch of an earpiece and you’re set.

The particular required act to verse jump gets bizarre and hilarious, as do some of the other selves in other universes.

And the dynamics of the characters fold back again and again with a constant, sometimes gentle humour – a customer’s bag of laundry kept upstairs in the apartment, ‘I think the clothes are happier there’ – and sometimes delightfully twisted humour (sausages for fingers anyone?), weaved all the way through the storyline.

Even the interchange of language from English to Chinese adds to the blurring as Waymond arrives in this universe to take the body of Evelyn’s husband in the current universe to tell her that she’s the only one who can save the multiverse from the evil Toboki (Stephanie Hsu). All the while tax auditor (Jamie Lee Curtis) is telling Evelyn that there can’t be anything more important than what’s she’s telling her about her current taxes, right now. And this coming from an award-winning auditor – the phallic trophies on proud display.

I have to say, Jamie Lee Curtis is just pure gold as this tax auditor character. Absolutely brilliant casting and performance. Hilarious.

The whole cast is amazing with Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn in what looks like herself as an actress blended into the multiverse story.

There’s some far-reaching ideas here with the title of the movie just so apt.

And added to the Kung Fu fighting and humour there’s also a good foundation to the family drama so I had a good giggle, got a little teary, and was pleasantly surprised by edgy concepts held together with the use of chapters to give the movie structure.

I don’t want to give too much away because there will be plenty of buzz about this film and if you’re reading this review, you’re more than likely going to go watch it and I highly recommend it: go watch it.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

Rated: M

Directed by: David Yates

Screenplay Written by: J. K. Rowling & Steve Kloves

Based on the Screenplay by: J. K. Rowling

Produced by: David Heyman, J. K. Rowling, Steve Kloves, Lionel Wigram and Tim Lewis

Executive Producers: Neil Blair, Danny Cohen, Josh Berger, Courtenay Valenti and Michael Sharp

Starring: Eddie Redmaye, Jude Law, Ezra Miller, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Callum Turner, Jessica Williams, Katherine Waterston and Mads Mikkelsen.

‘No one can know everything.’

A quietly rocking train. Professor Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) sighs.

Gellert Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen) comments, ‘They like to chatter, the muggle friends.’

Grindelwald thinks of muggles as animals.

‘But they do make a good cup of tea.’

Dumbledore and Grindelwald were going to take over the world when they were young. They made a blood pact, a powerful spell meaning they could not harm the other.

Now that Grindelwald wants to destroy the muggle world and take control of the wizarding world, it’s a pact Dumbledore regrets.

The Secrets of Dumbledore continues on from the previous instalment of Magic Beasts. And for me, this is the best one yet.

I was absolutely delighted, there’s no other way to describe the feeling of seeing Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) along with the Pickett, the Bowtruckle and Teddy the Niffler.

Newt describes Teddy as frankly a nightmare but what would he do without him? Remembering Teddy’s also the critter who managed to steal back the pendant holding the blood of Dumbledore and Grindelwald – he’s a very clever Niffler still obsessed with gold and still hilarious.

Queenie (Alison Sudol) still resides with Grindelwald as does the darkly disturbed Obscurial, Credence (Ezra Miller) – the only wizard powerful enough to attempt to kill Dumbledore and used by Grindelwald because the pact dictates he cannot kill Dumbledore himself.

A wanted criminal, Grindelwald wants to be free. He wants to take over the world.

To fight back, Dumbledore calls upon: Newt along with Newt’s brother, Theseus (Callum Turner), Head of the British Auror Service; Newt’s assistant, Bunty (Victoria Yeates), ‘No one can know everything. Not even you,’ she tells Newt.

Muggle baker Jacob (Dan Fogler) is called back, even though he’s heartbroken and doesn’t want to, he can’t resist saving a dame in distress; introducing, Eulalie Hicks (Jessica Williams): ‘Well, you do know I’m a witch, right?’

And finally, there’s Yusuf Kama (William Nadylam) of an old wizardly bloodline quietly adding his graceful loyalty while he morns for his half-sister, Leta.

They all look at one another, so this is who’s going to save the world?

There’s a different tone to his instalment, less of that 1920s feel and more dungeons and deep dark forests, temples on clifftops and snow falling from the sky as Credence uses the Obscurian to tear the streets apart.

Newt with his fantastic beasts adds lighthearted moments, his crablike dance to pacify, well, killer crabs had the entire audience in the cinema giggling.

Again, the beasts were a strong feature in the film, and what I also really enjoy in, Fantastic Beasts is the use of objects – the pendant holding the blood pact, the snake wand, Newt’s case holding the magic beasts. The attention to detail is thoroughly absorbing. Every detail balanced, the storyline, well-paced.

There’s a perfect play of darkness and light in, The Secrets of Dumbledore as the story starts digging deeper: it’s funny, sometimes confronting, it’s explosive, dramatic and heart-warming.

I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next.

Ambulance

Rated: MA15+

Directed by: Michael Bay

Produced by: Michael Bay, Bradley J. Fischer, James Vanderbilt, William Sherak, Ian Bryce

Screenplay by: Chris Fedak, based on the original story and screenplay for the 2005 Danish film Ambulancen by Laurits Munch-Petersen and Lars Andreas Pederen

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Eiza González.

‘We’re a locomotive, we don’t stop.’

Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal) and his brother Will (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) are escaping a bank robbery gone wrong in an ambulance.

They have two hostages, an EMT (Eiza González) and a shot cop needing emergency surgery.

It’s a Michael Bay action movie.

And I don’t necessarily mean that in a bad way.

But some of the storyline, like the emergency surgery conducted by Cam the EMT in the back of the ambulance with instruction via Face Chat from surgeons taking a break from playing golf, pushed the storyline to the ridiculous making the cast have to work really hard to make the film believable enough to be watchable.

Yes, it’s a classic action film, with some awkward humour that rarely hit the mark, and yet being a classic action the light-hearted crazy from bad-brother Danny complimented the high-speed chases as the two brother are chased across LA by choppers and souped-up cop cars all to a soundtrack that just kept revving faster and faster.

It’s a quintessential LA setting with graffiti, and rubbish-strewn streets; the city lights and mesmerising, layered highways. Ambulance is about two brothers growing up in LA, one who follows in his father’s footsteps, a well-known robber with a reputation of being psychotic, the other brother choosing a different life, to become a marine.

So there’s a back-story to the brothers’ relationship that keeps up the drama; Will doing right but right doesn’t pay for his wife’s desperately needed surgery. So when he asks his wayward brother for money, it’s a matter of Will having to help him pull off a $32 million bank heist to get it.

And Danny can be very convincing.

Then there’s the EMT Cam – she can keep anyone alive for 20 minutes, but no one wants to be her partner.

One of the highlights of the film is Cam mystified seeing the two brothers singing the 80s classic, Sailing, while trying to relax mid-escape.

There’s a lot of tongue-in-cheek humour mixed with flashbacks to childhood montages with emotive music that kinda worked. But what really worked in this film was the awe-inspiring camerawork that had the action spinning around to fly straight up into the air.

Really, the car chases and explosions are next level.

So medical procedures, high speed car chases and strange humour that had me scratching my head, like – ‘what did you do to my legs?!’ asks one robber after his legs are twisted the wrong way after being run over.

But overall, Ambulance is worth a watch just for those high-speed action shots.

The Bad Guys

Rated: PG

Directed by: Pierre Perifel

Based on: The Scholastic book series by Aaron Blabey

Produced by: Damon Ross and Rebecca Huntley

Executive Producers: Aaron Blabey, Etan Cohen and Patrick Hughes

Starring: Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Craig Robinson, Anthony Ramos, Awkwafina, Richard Ayoade, Zazie Beetz, Lilly Singh and Alex Borstein.

‘We may be bad but we’re so good at it.’ Meet, The Big Bad Wolf (Sam Rockwell).

Mr. Wolf is part of The Bad Guys – a gang of villains who just love being bad and stealing stuff.

There’s Mr. Snake (Marc Maron): a master like Houdini at opening a safe… without hands…

Ms. Tarantula (Awkwafina), AKA Wizz: an eight-legged hacker;

Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson): a master of disguise, ‘I’m a destruction worker.’

And Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos) – he’s crazy and farts when nervous.

Natural selection has handed The Bad Guys the card of being feared – everyone’s terrified of them, so why not be bad?!

When Governor Foxington (Zazie Beetz) calls the gang out on TV as being sad and needing to fill a hole in their being with money which is never going to work because they just want to be loved… Mr. Wolf sees red and decides it’s time to steal the ultimate bad guy prize: The Golden Dolphin. A trophy given to the one citizen who’s done the most good.

Meet: Professor Marmalade (Richard Ayoade). A guinea pig and therefore nicknamed, ‘Pig’. He’s Mr. Snakes favourite food.

The storyline is setup as a heist movie for kids. And not just because of the animation (DreamWorks excelling again with their detail in fur). But because of all the lame dad jokes.

‘You’re good at this.’

‘I’m kind of a natural. Learned mostly from YouTube.’

There are some predictable twists in the plot with underlying main message of there’s ‘a flower of goodness in everyone, just waiting to blossom’.

But the tone of the film as a caper, with split screens and jaunty soundtrack, reminiscent of an Ocean’s movie, felt twee.

I know, a kid’s movie. But the, ‘One of these days their luck is gonna run out,’ and the meteor falling to earth that Pig/Prof sees as a heart, naw, yet The Bad Guys see as a butt… Well, that actually was pretty funny.

And the, naw does get turned on its head.

It just wasn’t surprising.

The attempt of being edgy and diabolical made the film less edgy.

I liked the characters and the fact, Mr. Wolf can taste the air and hear colour. But the lines of the characters didn’t always land making, The Bad Guys an OK watch but nothing over exciting.

X

Rated: R18+

Directed by: Ti West

Produced by: Ti West, Jacob Jaffke, Harrison Kreiss, Kevin Turen

Starring: Mia Goth, Brittany Snow, Scott Mescudi, Jenna Ortega.

‘Just when you thought you’d escaped the slaughterhouse.’

Cicadas and flies and a rundown farmhouse are the setting of, X.

Police cars have their strobes silently rotating.

They walk into the farmhouse.

An evangelist is preaching on the TV.

The cops walk down to the basement, ‘My God.’

X is a horry (ha, ha, typo I swear), I mean gory, horror featuring the cast and crew of a porn movie in the making: The Farmer’s daughters.’

It’s 1979. Anyone can make a porn, especially a home-made movie. But cameraman, RJ (Owen Campbell) wants this porn to be different, ‘Because it’s possible to make a good dirty movie.’

He’s brought his good-girl girlfriend (Jenna Ortega) along as sound tech to prove his point.

And Maxine (Mia Goth) co-star and girlfriend of the executive producer (Martin Henderson) of said porn has the x-factor: ‘I need to be famous Wayne.’

To give the setting of the film the right ambiance, Wayne rents an outbuilding on a farm. A farm owned by an elderly man and his wife.

And by elderly, I mean old; the old-factor pushed to become part of the horror, because, X is a horror that builds with flashes from the deteriorating old to the fresh and young x-factor porn stars.

Blond bombshell Brittany and fellow, well-endowed sometime boyfriend, Jackson (Scott Mescudi) are ready to perform for the first scene.

The flash back and forth between the old and the x with the ominous music of the soundtrack holds the tone of bad things to come.

Including bones sticking out of fingers and nails through feet.

There are jumps and moments when I was looking through my fingers.

It gets twisted too, but not to the extent it’s unwatchable.

The storyline wavers across to the ridiculous but there’s genuine tongue-in-cheek humour, like a sign reading, ‘Plowing Service,’ stuck to the side of the film crew’s van.

There’s nothing believable about the old couple, but the techniques in the directing and editing lift the quality of X, the juxtaposition of scenes timed just right, the staring of Maxine directly into the camera and co-star Bobby-Lynne (Brittany Snow) asking, ‘What about you, Maxine? What’s your American Dream?’

Maxine doesn’t answer directly, only to herself in the mirror – to not live the life she doesn’t deserve.

There’s underlying meaning to the seemingly benign that comes full circle in the story that leaves a different kind of understanding of the film – not just sex, not just horror, but an extra layer that makes the erotic slasher also interesting.

Dog

Rated: M

Directed by: Channing Tatum & Reid Carolin

Story by: Reid Carolin, Brett Rodriguez

Produced by: Gregory Jacobs, Peter Kiernan, Brett Rodriguez

Starring: Channing Tatum, Ryder McLaughlin, Aavi Haas.

‘You’re more than just a dog.’

Opening the film to puppy pics then written assessments, Lulu, a Belgian Malinois Army K9 is no ordinary dog.

With eight military tours to her name, Lulu was part of the Ranger Battalion team.

But after injury and her master, Rodriguez dying in a high speed car crash, she’s not the same dog.

US army Ranger, Jackson Briggs (Channing Tatum) finds out the hard way, ‘You do not want to touch her ears.’

Banged up and on forced leave but desperate to get back into the action, Briggs has one more job to complete before his sergeant signs off the last document, clearing him for active duty: he has to drive from Washington to Arizona to take Lulu to her master’s funeral. Then take her on her last journey to be put down because now, she’s a killer dog that’s unmanageable.

It’s understandable to think, Oh, it’s another one of those tear-jerker dog movies…

But there’s something unique here that’s funny and kind, with man and dog damaged in a job they love, where they were, ‘kicking doors, getting our murder on.’

Dog is a movie that surprises in its depth.

It reminded me of how Hemingway writes men: stoic with a soft spot when understood – think, the character Thomas Hudson and his cat in, Islands in the Stream.

Channing Tatum is great in his role as an army brute with a scar running up the back of his neck on a road trip with a ferocious dog he can’t stop talking too.

Of course they win each other over, that’s kind of expected with this type of movie, but the military angle added another layer so it was two brutes that save each other.

There’re light-hearted moments that are so strange that it feels like real life, while also touching on sensitive subjects like PTSD, war and suicide.

So yes, it gets emotional but without any forced sentiment. Because more than anything it’s a cracker of a well-paced story about a man and a dog.

I’ve never liked Channing Tatum as much as I like him in this film.

Book of Love

Rated: M

Directed by: Analeine Cal y Mayor

Written by: David Quantick & Analeine Cal y Mayor

Produced by: Naysun Alae-Carew, Michael Knowles, Allan Niblo & Richard Alan Reid

Starring: Sam Claflin, Verónica Echegui, Fernando Becerril, Horacio Villalobos and Lucy Punch.

‘You’ve never been in love,’ Maria (Verónica Echegui) tells Henry (Sam Claflin).

She can tell by the way he writes, his novel, ‘The Sensible Heart,’ described by Henry as a book about practical love.

Yawn.

That’s what anyone who’s ever read it thinks.

Until Maria translates the book into Spanish, to become the Number 1 Best Seller in Mexico.

She does more than translate, she re-writes Henry’s passionless vision of love into a sex-romp.

He wonders why Mexican fans are sending him sex-pics.

When he finds out about the changes to his book (he doesn’t speak Spanish which adds to the comedy) he’s mortified. But who cares? It’s selling.

So when his publisher (Lucy Punch) forces Henry to go to Mexico to promote the book (he didn’t write) it’s a comedy of awkward moments as this stuffy Englishman tries to politely give credit to a book he didn’t write while falling in love with the woman who re-writes him.

Book Of Love lives up to the romance of the title with the extra hint of pink font in the opening credits.

Polite and stuffy yet handsome Englishman meets passionate with unrecognised talent, Mexican single mum, Maria.

Classic romantic set-up.

It’s a comedy too (rom-com), lacy undies thrown on stage included. And there’s sheep.

It’s a light-weight viewing that rolls along on sweet moments with son and grandpa Max (Fernando Becerril) in the back of the Volkswagen beetle brought along on tour because they can’t be trusted to be alone. Then there’s the jealous ex with comments like, ‘I promise this is the last time I let you down.’

The humour appealed to my cynicism, so I wanted Maria to succeed.

There’re a few hurdles in this love story to keep it interesting, and a fresh take on the drama that unfolds between new love and letting go of the old. Or not even letting go just knowing what feels right and what is so obviously wrong. And understanding the difference between lust and love; how love is an ideal not a reality, that people are the reality of love and that people let you down. But that passion is also part of love and in the end can lead to one big hot mess but that’s OK.

It all gets a bit unrealistic, in other words a rom-com (what did you expect?!) where I chuckled a few times with the romance sweet without being over cheesy.

Cyrano

Rated: M

Directed by: Joe Wright

Screenplay by: Erica Schmidt

Based on: The stage musical adapted and directed by Erica Schmidt, from ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’ by Edmond Rostand, with music by Aaron & Bryce Dessner and lyrics by Matt Berninger & Carin Besser

Music by: Bryce Dessner & Aaron Dessner

Produced by: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Guy Heeley

Executive Produced by: Erica Schmidt, Sarah-Jane Robinson, Sherraz Shah, Lucas Webb, Matt Berninger, Carin Besser, Aaron Dessner

Starring: Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennett, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Ben Mendelsohn.

‘My sole purpose on this earth is to love Roxanne (Haley Bennett),’ laments Cyrano (Peter Dinklage).

He at least has the decency to be a little embarrassed of the words uttered to his friend, Le Bret (Bashir Salahuddin).

It’s not the flowery words that embarrass Cyrano, but that he has admitted his love for the unreachable.

He is a midget and she a great beauty to be worshiped.

Cyrano and Roxanne are friends. Best friends. If he told her of his true feelings, he would lose her forever.

Cyrano sighs as he states, ‘I am living proof that God has a sick sense of humour.’

Pursued by the Duke De Guiche (Ben Mendelsohn), Roxanne’s loved by many.

The Duke is rich, she’s poor. Her handmaiden (Monica Dolan) reminds her, ‘Children need love. Adults need money.’

Roxanne wants love more than anything. And thinks she’s found it when she sees the dashing soldier, Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) for the first time.

It’s love at first sight.

Christian is handsome but without a sharp wit. It’s up to Cyrano to write letters on Christian’s behalf, to write all the things he’s ever wanted to tell Roxanne. Only to be signed by Christian.

Cyrano is a musical romance set at a time of puppet shows, lace and ribbons, duels and corsets.

Not my favourite flavour of film.

I promised myself to keep an open mind.

Expect singing from the outset.

And also some great lines from Cyrano like, ‘Would you defend this… sausage?!’ He describes an actor wearing a red frizzy wig and well past his used-by date.

I quote the dialogue often because there is just so much to quote; the words, the lyrics roll like waves throughout the film.

The love story does cloy with Roxanne’s demand of a handsome Christian filled with handsome words – with the expectation of nothing less.

It’s all very pretty and irritating with the ink on the paper of the first letter making her nervous.

But wow, there are some spectacular scenes of clever camera work of sword fighting and the audience back-and-forth in the theatre; the quiet of breathing.

And then the tears started.

It wasn’t the love story that got me, but the soldiers singing the words of their letter to be sent to their loved ones back home. The lyrics here are beautiful in their lack of sentiment. That’s what got to me: the clear-sighted expression of feeling.

The words and lyrics of the film are more like poetic truth than song.

Yes, there are irritating, long-winded moments but Peter Dinklage as Cyrano has a way of balancing the sweetness of the romance with a wry wit.

And once the tears started, the rest of the film built on that emotion.

So I admit, I got into a musical romance.

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