Review: 'Cyrano' is a sweetly swoony take on the classic romance, with Peter Dinklage perfect as the tragic hero

If there’s any movie lover left who thinks the Academy Awards are chosen solely on merit — rather than the strength of a studio’s marketing campaign — one viewing of “Cyrano” will forever rid them of the notion.

Costume designers Massimo Cantini Parrini and two-time winner Jacqueline Durran got the movie’s only nomination. But I can’t help but wonder who else would have been nominated if not for a stutter-stepped campaign by its studio, MGM, that borders on movie-distribution malpractice.

Maybe cinematographer Seamus McGarvey’s sumptuous, candle-lit camerawork. Maybe Erica Schmidt, on her first screenplay, writing such an elegant adaptation of Edmond Rostand’s famous play. Maybe the stirringly romantic song score by brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessner (members of the band The National). And, without a doubt, Peter Dinklage’s heartbreaking tour de force in the title role.

Dinklage doesn’t need a false nose to play Rostand’s tragic romantic, as his 4-foot, 5-inch frame is enough to draw catcalls from strangers. Years of being called a freak — “the insult is ancient, but I’ll accept it,” he says early on — have toughened Cyrano’s hide and sharpened his wit. Cyrano delivers a comical mid-performance takedown of a boorish actor (Mark Benton) in rhyming couplets, and fences expertly when sniveling count (Joshua James) makes the mistake of challenging him to a duel.

Cyrano’s performance, as his comrade-in-arms LeBret (Bashir Salahuddin) notices, is for an audience of one: The beautiful Roxanne (Haley Bennett), whom Cyrano has known for years and loved just as long. “My soul purpose on this earth is to love Roxanne,” Cyrano tells LeBret, adding that because of his small stature, “my fate is to love her from afar.”

When Roxanne seeks a private meeting with Cyrano, he dares to hope that she might feel the same. But soon he learns that Roxanne has fallen in lcve with someone else — a recruit in Cyrano’s regiment, Christian Neuvilette (Kelvin Harrison Jr.). Christian is handsome and good-hearted, but his tongue and pen are nowhere near as agile as Cyrano’s. Cyrano offers to write Christian’s love letters to Roxanne, and literature’s most eloquent love triangle begins.

There is a fourth character that the other three must deal with: A vain duke, De Guiche (Ben Mendelsohn), who wants Roxanne for his property. When De Guiche sees Christian and Cyrano as obstacles between himself and Roxanne, his jealousy leads to the story’s third act — as the regiment is sent to the front in an endless war.

The Dessners’ songs are lilting, fittingly romantic tunes, and the lead cast — notably Bennett (“The Girl on the Train”) with her breathy soprano and Dinklage’s gravely speak-singing — make the most of them. Their voices aren’t Broadway-musical perfect (even though Dinklage and Bennett played the roles together onstage), but the vulnerability of their voices suits the material better.

The most touching song doesn’t involve the leads, though. “Wherever I Fall” is a mournful, soulful number about soldiers preparing for a battle from which they know they will not return. (One of the three soldiers who sings it is Glen Hansard, the Irish singer for The Frames and The Swell Season, and the co-songwriter and star of director John Carney’s 2007 musical masterpiece “Once.”) 

Director Joe Wright channels the same swooning period style that made his 2005 “Pride & Prejudice” and the 2012 version of “Anna Karenina” work, and he gives his stars the space to get comfortable with the songs through which they must express so much emotion.

Dinklage, one of our most consistently expressive and surprising actors, uses his gruff persona as Cyrano’s armor — a way to fend off the slings and arrows of the world, while protecting his heart for Roxanne. It’s an impassioned performance, one that deserves more attention.

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‘Cyrano’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, February 25, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG-13 for some strong violence, thematic and suggestive material, and brief language. Running time: 123 minutes.