Cyrus - 2010 - 3 Stars

Director: Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass
Cast: John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill, Marisa Tomei, Catherine Keener, Matt Walsh


THE SPOILERS BELOW ARE EQUIVALENT TO HAVING WATCHED A TRAILER FOR CYRUS


There is an art to making a great movie trailer. My favorite trailers are montages that are basically music videos and give away very little plot, two recent examples of these are The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo or Where the Wild Things Are. I also like trailers for comedy or action movies that are so plot light, that I know nothing really can be spoiled for me, but I can preview the aesethic/comic sensibility of the film: recent examples of those are trailers for The Raid or Ted. I have always loved movie trailers, but eventhough I didn't see the trailer for Cyrus, it is making me reconsider my trailer policy, because Cyrus made me realize how many potential surprises I am sacrificing by watching trailers.

Cyrus is the first film I have seen by the Patron Saints of Mumblecore, Mark and Jay Duplass. Its seven million dollar budget makes it a veritable mumblecore blockbuster and though the acting has a naturalistic and improvisational feel to it, the movie doesn't feel amateurish. Being unfamiliar with the Duplass filmography, I went into the movie expecting anything could happen, which is why I ended up being surprised by a plot that in retrospect revolves around a lot of hoary tropes. John C. Reilly plays a man-child, who has been in an existential rut since he broke up with his ex-wife (Catherine Keener) who is about to get remarried. He meets Molly (Marisa Tomei) at a party and they instantly connect, the only problem is ... Molly has a live in 21 year old son named Cyrus (Jonah Hill) who is socially awkward and extremely protective of his mother. If I had seen a trailer for Cyrus I would have spent the whole first act, waiting to meet the eponymous character, but fortunately I hadn't and the movies loose feel made me believe that anything could happen, which allowed me to be surprised by some pretty big cliches.

The acting in Cyrus is all top notch and while there are no big comic set-pieces it is consistently funny and it manages to remain tense without delving into cringe comedy. Jonah Hill has gotten a lot of credit for his role in Moneyball, but I found his performance here to be similarly low-key and much stronger. I initially wrote off his performance in Moneyball as a fluke, but after Cyrus I have become a Jonah Hill convert. My major problem with the film is Molly's inconsistent characterization. She is presented as a Manic-Pixie Dream Woman, who unfortunately is burdened with being too loving a mother and having a weird child. Except that child's weirdness is largely her own fault, if your son is 21 years old living at home, unemployed, not in school, friendless and has a gigantic Oedipus complex, it makes me doubt your basic competencies as a mother and a person. Marisa Tomei manages give depth to this character and I believed John C. Reilly would fall for her, but I didn't believe that the Cyrus's mother and John's girlfriend were the same person and I didn't believe the Duplasses were trying to make a point about fractured identities. I liked the mumblecore aesthetic and the realistic performances and will be watching future Duplass films, but I next time the plots and characters don't feel as loose as the performances.