La La Land 2021? With 2021? With half a dozen ways different ways to start this review swirling through my head, I decided to best refer to La La Land, my favorite movie musical of all time. Because there is a new runner-up. While Joe Wright’s (Anna Karenina, Atonement)  Cyrano doesn’t entirely leave that pit in your heart when it concludes, it comes pretty darn close. Both breathtakingly beautiful and painstakingly heartwrenching, Peter Dinklage (Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri, I Care A Lot) is astounding as Cyrano de Bergerac, a role he was destined to play.

As a massive Game of Thrones Fan, Dinklage will be remembered forever as Tyrion Lannister, the disregarded third child of Lord Tywin, his father, and one of the most influential and wealthy families. Tyrion’s quick wit, strategic mind, and empathy toward others make him the show’s most memorable, likable, and popular character. His achievements were fast, earning an Emmy Award nomination in each of the show’s eight seasons, including four wins. So, it leaves the question of what he could do to top one of the most iconic characters in television history, perhaps by lending his singing voice to his most personal performance yet as the lead protagonist Cyrano, a stunted duelist serving as a soldier, who is known for his quick quips as much as his swordsmanship in this musical adaptation of Edmond Rostand’s 1897 play.

Referred to as a freak throughout his entire life because of his diminutive size, Cyrano publically portrays himself as a man who lets the insults roll off his shoulders. However, one look into his eyes suggests this is anything but true. An artist at heart, Cyrano releases his pent-up anger towards the world with his sword and other physical uses of his body (as a member of his country’s guard, we see him strengthening his upper body through the use of a punching bag in one scene) as much as he does through his pen. In addition, he’s a gifted poet who can churn out pages of beautiful prose at a moment’s notice, which he does on multiple occasions throughout the film.

Cyrano is deeply in love with childhood friend Roxanne (The Magnificent Seven, The Devil All the Time). Still, he has never spoken of his true feelings, labeling himself as less than through phrases such as “the world will never accept someone like me and a tall, beautiful woman.” Though beautiful, Roxanne is on the wrong side of 30 years of age, and her prospects for courtship will soon start to wane. Her closest advisors, most notably her mother, advise her to marry the wealthy and powerful but deceitful and possessive Duke de Guiche (an unrecognizable Ben Mendelsohn – Mississippi Grind, HBO’s The Outsider) for the security he will bring for the rest of her life. Then, one night, while attending a stage performance in the city’s hub, she sees Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr. – The Trial of the Chicago 7, Mudbound), a new military recruit. Their eyes connect, and it’s love at first sight.

Soon after, Roxanne meets up with a confidant in Cyrano, telling him she has a confession to make. She has confided in him that she has fallen in love with someone. Because of the secret meeting, he believes that he may be him. He is on the verge of first expressing his love to her when she mentions Christian’s name, piercing his heart sharper than any blade ever could. Cyrano is completely heartbroken. His broad, sullen eyes, twitching mouth, and facade-wearing smile attempt to fake happiness for his friend. Dinklage’s magnificently expressive face reflects a full range of worldly emotions. Many of us, if not most of us, have found ourselves in a similar situation at least once. In those instances, not only is our unspoken infatuation or desire for romantic love with someone not returned, but we are also forced to bear witness as that person tells us about their feelings for a different person. But even worse is when we are forced to watch that person we seek in the arms of another.

At that moment, Cyrano is all of us. However, this is no fault of Christian, a member of Cyrano’s regime. In fact, Christian is unaware of his feelings towards Roxanne. But how could an unattached man of a similar age not at least have a desire for a beautiful unmarried woman? Is Christian dismissing Cyrano as a suitor because he views him as less than a man? Or is it because he is so captivated by Roxanne’s beauty that he cannot think clearly? Perhaps it’s one or the other. Perhaps it’s both. Or maybe it is neither of these reasons at all.

Christian has the physical features Roxanne is drawn to, but can he mentally stimulate her? Can he express his love in a way that she desires? Unfortunately for him, he cannot. He cannot write and often stumbles over his words when sharing his emotions. He enlists Cyrano to write love letters to Roxanne on his behalf, which the wordsmith agrees to. Cyrano pours his most profound feelings in each letter, finally having the medium and a route for his most genuine affections to reach Roxanne. Each letter becomes more intense and finds its way deeper into Roxanne’s heart. She’s in love with Christian! Or is she in love with the words she believes Christian is penning?

The chemistry between our three leads, sprinkled with Mendelsohn’s De Guiche and Cyrano’s confident Le Bret (Bashir Salahuddin – Top Gun: Maverick, Snatch,) is organic. While we cheer for Cyrano, Christian is by far an antagonist. At a two-hour runtime, Cyrano is the perfect length. While I would not have wanted it to be any longer, there are two parts that I would have liked to have seen further explored. While a legitimate villain, De Guiche wasn’t as sinister as he could have been, though I realize that may have been by design. In the same way, the film had bloodless violence.

The second opportunity was to display Christian’s awkwardness a bit more. We understood who he was, but the whole courting process seemed a tad rushed. There were opportunities here for some comedic elements, which some audiences may have preferred, though I would not have been one of them. But having the chance to witness the incompatibility between him and Roxanne a bit more than we did would have made Cyrano even more of a character for whom we can root. With that said, we didn’t need it. Cyrano was our guy from the start. We were lucky enough to spend two hours inside his mind, heart, and soul as we hoped for the best and prepared for the worst. Matching the Hollywood heavyweight scene after scene was Bennett, creating a character in Roxanne who exuded external elegance and charm that was only surpassed by her beautiful soul, who offered compassion for all as she searched for the one feeling that had eluded her.

Previous versions (in fact, I believe all of them) of Rostand’s play used Cyrano’s huge nose as a deformity that made him the mockery of jokes and the deterrent of a beautiful woman falling for a man who is viewed as far less physically alluring. No better example of that is the loose 1987 adaptation Roxanne, a comedic take on the play starring Steve Martin. As much as this might be viewed as a hindrance to finding love, it can often be impossible to see past the prosthetic used to define a protruding nose, though it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch with the 1990 version that starred Gerard Depardieu’s. The change from facial deformity to dwarfism is incredibly innovative. It exemplifies how we continue to innovate our writing, music, film, and other art forms while distancing ourselves from other previously defined or constrained societal norms.

Each year, there are at least a few movies that I’m immensely looking forward to seeing. While many of those movies often live up to my lofty expectations, just as often, they do not. Then there are the movies that I’m anticipating that ultimately falter. But each year, there are also a handful of films that I either happened to stumble upon, learned about through word of mouth, or knew about but wasn’t necessarily excited to see. Cyrano falls into that last category. I’ve known for months that there was a movie about Cyrano de Bergerac in which Dinklage played the lead. The star intrigued me. The character did not. My interest decreased further when I learned that the film was a musical. That all changed when I saw the preview, partially because there was plenty of dialogue (unlike a movie like Les Miserables, where there is nearly none). In a 150-second preview, Dinklage said so much. The filial, undying love for Roxanne that he forced himself to repress stretched across his face from one frame to the next.

In these short moments, I experienced his pain and wanted so much to continue this experience with him. With all due respect to Jessica Chastain’s phenomenal portrayal as the lead in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Dinklage delivered the best performance of the year. Unfortunately, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences snubbed him and the film. Don’t Look Up and Licorice Pizza, in the Best Picture category, are both far cries from Cyrano. Javier Bardem (Being the Ricardos) and even the great Denzel Washington (The Tragedy of Macbeth) fail to measure up to Dinklage.