Love triangles are always good material for romantic comedies. They usually involve two men fighting for the love of a woman, or of course two women fighting for the heart of a man. In "Cyrus", too, a woman is caught between two men. But a very special twist makes this story stand out from the crowd of similar works.
John (John C. Reilly) is not really an uncomplicated person. He has had little luck with women so far. But his ex-wife Jamie (Catherine Keener) and her fiancé Tim (Matt Walsh) want to finally get the unlucky guy hitched again. The invitation to a party should finally tear the hermit out of his gray everyday life. And that's where the unbelievable happens: John meets the charming and attractive Molly (Marisa Tomei), who actually seems to be interested in him. The chemistry between the two is right and a relationship quickly develops that could make John truly happy for the first time in a long time.
Too bad, though, that there's another man in Molly's life who doesn't take kindly to this budding love: her 21-year-old son Cyrus (Jonah Hill). With him, Molly has a very close, rather unconventional relationship, the consequences of which John feels firsthand. And so begins the competition for a woman in whose life there really only seems to be room for one man...
"Cyrus" is a strange viewing experience. The staging doesn't really make it clear whether the directors had their hearts set on bringing a whimsical comedy or a blackly humorous drama to the screen. The end result is neither fish nor fowl, rarely inspiring amused smirks and even rarer genuine laughs. Rather, the film constantly exudes a rather unpleasant vibe that, coupled with moments of awkwardly touched strangeness, make watching this film a not really enjoyable experience.
Sure, the actors are wonderful. The chemistry between John C. Reilly and Marisa Tomei is actually spot on, and it's easy to take away from the two as the newly in love couple. Jonah Hill ("Superbad") also does a great job as the manipulative mama's boy. There are even a few scenes where his performance could definitely be called great. But embedded in the indecisive staging, it is this performance that intensifies the somehow uneasy feeling that was certainly not intended.
While it is pleasant that "Cyrus" does not try to appeal to a wide audience with flat gags and crowd-pleasing fecal humor. The opportunities for this would have been there throughout the story. But the two directors skillfully avoid this, preferring to go their own, more unwieldy way. This has to be credited to them, even if their rather special humor will probably appeal to even less viewers than other small American independent comedies have managed to do. Whoever wants to have a good laugh in the cinema is unfortunately in the wrong movie here. But if you are looking for US comedies with a little more ambition than usual, good actors and very peculiar and therefore unusual humor, which is guaranteed to be well served by "Cyrus".
Ein Artikel von Frankfurt-Tipp
