Huh. Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac is more suited to teenagers than adults. Never saw it so clearly before. Look, you’re a grown-ass man, Cyrano; if it ain’t happenin’ on the romance side, at some point, you gotta own it. “Hey, it’s my nose! It’s my acne! It’s my raging boils!” Yeah, I get it. You’re a leper. You’re also old enough to know a little bit about love, a little bit about how it’s blind, and a little bit about you have a way with words. Give any man the choice between devastating handsome and the ability to write deep poetry and he’ll take … well, handsome, of course. Don’t be silly. But don’t underestimate the ability to turn somebody on with a well-turned phrase. It’s the people that have neither which draw my empathy. And thus we turn back to teenagers.
The town of Squahamish sure sounds real, doesn’t it? The producers placed it in Nowhere, Washington. It’s probably a stone’s throw from Forks; I wonder if Squahamish has a glittery vampire problem, too. Unlike Forks, however, the love problems of these folks might make you care. Our Cyrano for this show, Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis), is so far from boilerplate Cyrano, you might not even recognize the character; she’s mousy, reserved, distinctly small-nosed, extremely under-the-radar, and most importantly, not in love. Well, not-at-first, but even when Ellie does fall in love, the object of her desire is a female. Cyrano the lesbian … welcome to the 21st century, Edmond. Try not to be offended; your work still prevails.
For the Edmond Rostand impaired, here’s Cyrano formula in a nutshell : A and B are in love with C. A, our hero, is a genius, but a social outcast, B is more physically desirable, but empty between the ears. C is beautiful; that’s all that usually matters. Giving up on their own happiness, A helps B to seduce C and lives vicariously in the afterglow. The joy of this work lies in the cat-and-mouse game the first two play to woo C; as C falls for the combo, a rivalry develops over who deserves credit. The idea is that eventually C figures out what’s going on and realizes that [her] true love is A, the person of words, rather than B, the easier-on-the-eyes person. I’ve seen nearly a dozen versions of this tale and I find them most palatable when 1) C is no dummy, 2) A and B are properly punished for their collective shenanigans. Most importantly, however, 3) When the relationships seem real and not just some fabrication of a French playwright.
The moron in this iteration is Paul Munsky (Daniel Diemer), a sausage-making, second-string tight end townie who has thoughts equally as challenging as those of Frankenstein’s Monster, but only when pushed. He’s in love with Aster (Alexxis Lemire), who –between Paul and her own musclehead boyfriend- doesn’t lack for admirers. Heck, if she ever wants to switch teams, now there’s Ellie waiting for her, too. Ellie runs the local paper writing racket. She charges, I believe, nowhere near enough for her work … but my economics have always been tied to big cities, not sparkly vampire country. Her English teacher knows damn well Ellie has written several papers on the recent assignment. “Why aren’t you busting me?” “And have to read six papers written by THESE guys?” Teacher has a point. Ellie is saving the money to put Squahamish in the rearview mirror and we applaud her for it. We just hope she can avoid the back-of-the-pickup denizens who taunt, “Choo Choo” as they pass Ellie the cyclist.
For all the money she’s made on delivering the thoughts of other students on paper, one thing Ellie doesn’t write is romance. This is one of the many things I enjoyed about this film. Our Cyrano is wicked skilled with the words, but has no knowledge of romance, nor any pretense that her would-be squeeze is a member of LGBTQ. It is only ugly family finances that make her take Paul up on his offer to woo Aster. Thanks to a love of old movies, Ellie plagiarizes Wim Wenders and gets called on it. Well, if you’re gonna get called out for plagiarizing romance, I suppose Wenders is as reasonable as source material gets.
There are several things I didn’t expect in this version: Paul is supposed to be an easy pick for Aster, but nothing could be further from the truth; in fact she’s already dating a far-more-popular (and handsome) guy than Paul. Also, Ellie wants Aster, yet accepts that Aster is not only out-of-her-league, but not on team hetero. And I was floored by the part where Paul starts falling for Ellie; we’re usually happy when Cyrano gets the girl; I’ve never seen the version where Cyrano also gets the guy. I was a fan of all of these unexpected developments. Mostly, however, I was taken with how much smoother this tale is in the context of modern high school – the unsure lovers, ploys being tested instead of assumed, and texting instead of taking audible cues is so much more realistic than a guy hiding in the bushes while the woman “can’t figure out” she’s talking to two different people.
I dunno where Alice Wu came from. I dunno where Leah Lewis came from. But I’d like to see more of them. The Half of It is a bit of a hidden gem; it’s intelligent and funny and far more realistic than other versions of this fable. Coming-of-age Cyrano should be as much about breaking out as breaking in and I applaud the movie whole-heartedly for acknowledging such.
So whom will Roxanne pick, do you suppose
The cavalier or the poet in soldier’s clothes?
The pair will strive
To keep flames alive
Bet on Cyrano to win it by a nose
Rated PG-13, 104 Minutes
Director: Alice Wu
Writer: Alice Wu
Genre: Shy is as shy does
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Wallflowers
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Bullies
