United Artists

PG-13.        127 min

 Cyrano de Bergerac,  loosely inspired by an actual 17th century French nobleman, known for his heroic sword play and extremely large nose, is an old story that has been told many times since the 1897  play by Edmond Rostand.  It really is a story for the ages built upon the bedrock of honor sacrifice duty and romance.  Over the last century or so the title character has been played by nearly a dozen actors including Jose Ferrer, Gerard Depardieu  Christopher Plummer and now Peter Dinklage, famous for his  Roll as Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones.   This particular film version was actually adapted from a 2018 Broadway musical of the same name written by Aaron Schmidt and features an odd twist.

 In the play (and  movie) Cyrano (Dinklage) is famous for his swashbuckling but also for his quick wit and eloquent poetry.  He is, unfortunately embarrassed by a large nose which he believes makes him unattractive to the woman he loves from afar, Roxanne.  He loves her but won’t let her know  out of fear of rejection.  On the other hand she's afraid to make a move because she considers the two of them merely friends.  Thanks to that misunderstanding she eventually becomes enamored with a handsome, but inarticulate, young recruit, Christian  (Kevin Harrison  Jr) who just happens to be crazy about her.  Words never spoken our words never heard.   But like the old saying goes no good deed goes unpunished.   So misunderstanding the situation Cyrano puts her feelings above his own and coaches Christian as he tries to win her heart through poetry and elegant prose.  Now the bitter irony of this situation is that she does fall in love, but not with Christian actually with the words of the diminutive  wordsmith.  Here the plot takes a dangerous twist when a jealous nobleman, in order to force Roxanne into an unhappy union with himself, send both the men, on a near suicide mission.  I won't spoil the ending but before the 2 men leave for the mission rock the mission Roxanne asks Cyrano to keep an eye on Christian while they are gone and at the  very least see that he writes. That much, he promises, he can do.