Cyrus

When you go to the movies do you ever say to yourself, I hope this movie is a less funny version of Step Brothers with an independent budget and academy award nominated actors playing static, uninteresting characters? Cyrus hopes you do. John C. Reilly plays a down on his luck divorcee who meets a fun loving woman, played by Marissa Tomei. They then have the beginnings of a relationship, as Reilly’s character must deal with the possessive and weird son of the woman, played by Jonah Hill.

Reilly finds a role that is a balance between some of the more serious jobs of his past and his current run with Judd Apatow projects. The character is not the funniest but Reilly does put an awkward twist on his performance that makes, the aptly named, John a sympathetic and likeable character. Tomei is obviously a good actress and there’s not much more to add. Hill proves to be the wild card however. Playing the title character (Cyrus), he uses the uncomfortable comedy that he has become famous for to make the audience cringe. Then when serious situations come about he fails at being believable. While he tends to be funnier than Reilly in this film, the serious moments separate the actor from the comedian.

Cyrus boasts some unconventional editing techniques to pump up the “artsy-ness” of some scenes. Mostly seen within conversations, jump cuts create some interesting visuals but toy with the viewer’s ability to completely submerge into the plot. It seemed that these occurrences are mostly intended to remind the viewer they are not watching a big budget comedy, but a more civilized indie effort. I wasn’t buying it.

The script skirts the issue of Tomei’s obsessive relationship with her son to the point that I expected their to be some sort of twist or shocking realization. I don’t think that would have been necessary but since there ends up being no twist everything comes off as very repetitive. Numerous funny moments carry the film but nothing comes close to hysterical and slight chuckles aren’t enough to make a movie. (7 out of 10)