Cyrus

'Cyrus' is one of those stories about an otherwise promising new relationship threatened by the cumbersome excess baggage one person brings along. In this case that baggage is another human being: a big, fat adult child called Cyrus (Jonah Hill), who, at twenty, still lives with his mother, with whom he's so close it's almost incestuous. With this movie the Duplass brothers, Mark and Jay, who wrote and directed, move away from their former territory of the micro-budget indie film-making group known as Mumblcore, into the realm of an Apatow comedy. Jonah Hill, of 'Knocked Up' and 'Superbad,'as well as the current 'Get Him to the Greek,'is a mainstay of the Apatow stable. This time the schlub he's playing isn't looking to get laid, only to keep his mom from doing so; and he plays it straight this time, not for laughs. This becomes a movie about stasis. And it also remains stuck between two genres. Some sparks fly, and the audience enjoys that, but somehow this ends by seeming something of a missed opportunity. It's neither a trail-blazing drama, nor a riotous comedy. It's just a big tease. The dangerous, obstructive situation is something the filmmakers play with successfully for an hour or so, and then don't seem to know what to do with. And the action just fizzles out.

Mumblecore tends to deal with twenty- or thirty-somethings' mating games and job dilemmas depicted in dialogue that feels rough and improvised. This time things are totally different because the Duplass brothers are working with famous actors. 'Cyrus' keeps things simple, but it's very sure of itself -- except that it doesn't finally decide where to go. It lacks the authentic flavor of Mumblcore, and it's not broadly drawn or funny enough for Apatow; what's more, it lacks the final sense of resolution of comedy. 'Cyrus' has a very forceful series of scenes, but they develop the situation only up to a point.

People laugh watching 'Cyrus,' but it doesn't try to be funny so much as embarrassing. It verges on the Todd Solondz-lite of Mike White, whose funny-peculiar, funny-creepy edge it duplicates; but it lacks White's droll range of characters.

John (John C. Reilly) is a lonely Guy, seven years divorced and still unable to move on. (Reilly gives John his usual warmth, but the writing doesn't flesh him out.) He relies a lot (abnormally much, in fact -- he's odd too) on his ex-wife and co-worker Jamie (the always suave Catherine Keener), who's about to get married. At Jamie's urging, John goes to a party and he meets Molly (Marisa Tomei) and magically they immediately hit it off and she goes home with him. But she leaves in the night. And she does that again when she comes back for a date.

We soon find out why. Molly's unnaturally tied to Cyrus, her large, rotund twenty-year-old son who still lives with her. It's not clear if Cyrus actually does anything; he composes synthesizer music. Even the composing Molly shares in. He is not in school. He never calls his mother "mother," always "Molly."

The awkwardness of the situation keeps you watching. With John at Molly's house for their second evening together, Cyrus goes into the bathroom while his mother is taking a shower, thus signaling their inappropriate (and for John threatening) intimacy. Later that night when John has stayed over and he and Molly are asleep, Cyrus has a screaming fit that awakens them, and Molly runs to comfort him. It's clearly impossible for John and Molly to have private time together. Any sane man would run from this situation, but we understand John's neediness. For seven years he's been alone, and at last he's found a woman he really likes who likes him. What a pity!

Things go back and forth, but there's no real resolution. 'Cyrus' the movie is as narrow as it is effective -- up to a point. The strong, polished actors contrast with the obtrusive in-and-out zoom of the Duplasses' hand-held camera, which here feels annoying and unnecessary. It's an obtrusive holdover from the brothers' previous low-budget indie work. Only here the tentativeness and naturalism are gone. There's something slick about the movie. It has another obtrusive tic: whenever Molly and John make declarations to each other about their feelings, we see them together, but the lines are in voice-over, as if anything romantic is merely tacked-on.

John could hardly be unaware of how huge a threat Cyrus is to his connecting with Molly, and vice versa, but at first John and Cyrus circle around each other politely with nothing untoward happening except the odd disappearance of an essential piece of clothing. But after a while longer something slips and the gloves are off. Cyrus seems dangerous, potentially unhinged as well as incestuous. But he and John are both cowardly lions, not strong or mean enough to go over the top. If one of them did, things might not end up so muddled.

The movie seems afraid to carry things all the way. It lacks an edge, and its resolution is soft and fuzzy. While in this it's like Mumblecore films, which tend just to end, such an approach doesn't suit comedy. 'Cyrus' ventures far out of Mumblecore territory -- without entering anywhere else very definite. The result is far from a total loss. The film-making is solidly competent, the scenes are clearly -- perhaps too clearly -- written; the cast is fine. Cyrus is worthy of our attention, even though it ultimately somewhat disappoints, winding up with neither its dilemma nor its characters fully developed. This would be only a small fraction of a Mike Leigh film, and it would be resolved. The Duplass brothers are lazy filmmakers. They haven't at all got the keen observation of Andrew Bujalski.

The marketing for this movie is terribly misleading. It sells it as a zany comedy, which could not be farther from the truth. I'm not criticizing the film -- I thought it was quite good. But people are going to see this expecting something very different from what they get, and they're going to hold it unfairly against the film.

"Cyrus" is being billed as the first mainstream effort by mumblecore darling filmmakers Jay and Mark Duplass ("Baghead"). But "Cyrus" is only mainstream in that it's released by a major studio (Fox Searchlight) and has recognizable actors in it (John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei, Jonah Hill, Catherine Keener). In subject and style, it imports many of the characteristics of traditional mumblecore -- offbeat humor, improvised feel, bare bones production values -- wholesale.

Which again is not a criticism. I've been impressed with some of the mumblecore entries I've seen recently, like the aforementioned "Baghead" and "Humpday." "Cyrus" is a complex exploration of an odd and at times uncomfortable set up, and that it doesn't take a glib or condescending attitude toward its characters or devolve into potty jokes and slapstick couldn't make it less mainstream.

Reilly plays a lonely man looking for love and finding it in Marisa Tomei. Unfortunately, with her he also finds Cyrus, her twenty-something and morbidly dependent son. He tries to be a buddy at first, until it's clear that Cyrus isn't all that he appears and doesn't want a new guy around. The two men declare war on one another until fists fly, both figuratively and literally.

"Cyrus" is a small miracle of tone. It keeps its audience constantly guessing as to which direction it's going to go. The weird mother/son relationship depicted is at first just funny, then funny in a kind of squirmy way, then flat out disturbing. But the film knows exactly when it's about to push credibility too far, and just before it does, it lets us in on more information that makes everything plausible. One of the things I responded to most is the respect with which the actors and writers treat these characters. These people are not put on display for us to mock, or feel superior to, or pity. These are people who are trying their best to navigate tricky emotional terrain in the best way they know how, and the actors playing them all give lovely performances.

A smart, witty and thoughtful film in a season of cinematic junk food.

Grade: A

i just watched Cyrus. fantastic film. Every review I've read so far has called this film a comedy. nothing could be farther from the truth. this is a dramatic film with a few (very few) comedic elements. Hill should be recognized for his dramatic role. I didn't find this movie funny at all. I thought it was a very interesting depiction of the new love triangle, between a child, a mother, and her love interest. No doubt this movie took the relationship between single mother and her child to the extreme it represents a dynamic that has existed for at least a generation and is becoming the norm. Jonah, Marisa, and John play these roles with a truth and simplicity that is palpable. They do the subject justice.

While watching the story unfold throughout this movie I must confess I was rather riveted to the screen .... but when all is said and done I was left with a unsettled feeling about just what I had watched.

The three main characters all have a disruption in their past that has caused them to approach life hesitantly. John suffers a broken relationship and is now a recluse. Molly's problem is not exactly made clear. And Cyrus is an obese manipulative liar with what is easily described as an Oedipus complex.

These three come together, split up, them come together. The ending is happy and hollow.

Cyrus isn't really a comedy, though I wouldn't blame you if you have that impression before seeing the movie. Both Jonah Hill and John C. Reilly have been in a lot of comedies lately (though Reilly is fairly well-known for more serious movies like Magnolia and Boogie Nights), and the trailer doesn't do much to dissuade that notion. It does have some parts that are quite funny, but it gets more serious as the movie goes on, and is quite touching and raw at times. 

The story is about a divorced, lonely man (Reilly) who meets a seemingly perfect woman (Marisa Tomei). The only problem is that she has a live-in adult son Cyrus (Hill), and they're co-dependent on each other to the degree that Cyrus instantly hates the new man who (in his mind) is going to take his mother away. His solution is to sabotage their relationship. 

That sounds like the set-up for a broad comedy in the vein of Step-Brothers, but Cyrus sticks fairly close to its indie sensibilities. It's filmed in an almost documentary-type manner, the situations never really get too over-the-top or absurd, and the relationships remain the focus of the movie, throughout. The issues of co-dependency and parents and adult children having a hard time letting go of each other is treated pretty seriously. 

Cyrus was one of my most anticipated movies of 2010, and while I can't say it was as great as I hoped it would be, I ended up being pleasantly surprised by the tone it struck. I say keep an open mind and check it out.