“A CREATIVE ROMANCE”
Starring: John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill, Marisa Tomei, Catherine Keener and Matt Walsh
Directed by: Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass
MPAA Rating: R for language and some sexual material.
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Run Time: 1 hr. 32 min.
Release Date: June 2010
Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures
By John Delia
The soft spoken Jonah Hill leads a stellar cast in the film Cyrus, a bizarre yet touching film that turns romance on it’s ear. I found the film to be very amusing and well acted. If you like your romance with an odd twist, then this film is ready for your date night.
The witty little flick finds John (John C. Reilly), a lovelorn divorcee who hasn’t been able to come to grips with unmarried life, meets Molly (Marisa Tomei) at a party thrown by his ex-wife Jamie (Catherine Keener). An unexpected spark between John and Molly at the party ends with a hot night in his bed. John feels he has found a stroke of good luck when the love fest continues the next evening at his apartment following a date with her.
Now up for making it a regular thing, he follows Molly after she leaves his appartment late that night and ends up outside an unknown house. Awaking to find himself still in his car outside the house the next morning, he decides to peak inside a window. Much to his dismay a 21-year-old Cyrus (Jonah Hill) appears asking John what he is doing there. After a flimsy explanation about his relationship with Molly, Cyrus invites him in and reveals that he is her son. When Molly finds out that the two have met a contest between John and Cyrus begins for squatter’s rights.
Jonah Hill is amazingly good as the new age musician son who loves his mother almost too much. Not wanting to loose his spot in his mother’s house Jonah takes on John C. Reilly’s character with sinister abandon. It’s a lot of fun watching the two go at it. It reminded me of Reilly versus Will Ferrell in Step Brothers a hilarious film about older dudes being kids again.
Pinpoint direction by the Duplass brothers, Mark and Jay, keeps the movie rolling along at a good clip guiding their actors into delivering the bizarre storyline with style. Even though all John C. Reilly and Jonah Hill have to do is play themselves, it’s getting their support actors to follow that makes the film work. But the top performer here is Marisa Tomei who steels the show on a number of occasions dealing with the two men who have reduced themselves to a couple of conniving little boys.
The film is rated R for language and some sexual material.
FINAL ANALYSIS: A very good film with a very bizarre storyline. (4 of 5)
The film Cyrus marks Jonah Hill’s 21st film in only 6 years. If you look at what Jonah has accomplished in such a short span and put it up against actors who have received a lifetime achievement award, it would make him their equal. Now Jonah didn’t act in just any old film, the list includes the likes of The 40-year-old Virgin, Click, Superbad, Accepted, Knocked-up, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. In this year alone Jonah has worked in Get Him to the Greek, How to Train Your Dragon (voice) and now Cyrus. With Megamind scheduled for 2010 he will have completed a home run in 2010 a feat that a small number of actors have ever accomplished, let alone one that has only been on a movie screen since 2004.