Mommy maybe a little too dearest
Marisa Tomei and Jonah Hill as unconventional mother and son in "Cyrus."
(Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Cyrus
Running time: 92 minutes
MPAA rating: R (profanity and some sexual material)
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If you think the lovers triangle playing out down the multiplex hall between a werewolf, a vampire and a high school senior named Bella is creepy weird, you're right. But the relationship tension of "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" pales, if you'll excuse the pun, in comparison to the sad sack divorcee, the spunky new girlfriend and the other man in "Cyrus."
That's because the other guy happens to be the new girlfriend's 21-year-old son.
John C. Reilly ("Step Brothers"), Marisa Tomei ("The Wrestler"), Jonah Hill ("Get Him to the Greek") and Catherine Keener ("Please Give") top an ensemble cast assembled by film-making brothers Jay and Mark Duplass ("The Puffy Chair," a festival fave).
The Duplass brothers shoot fast and loose and in the actors' faces. So when their shaky, hand-held HD camera fills the frame with Reilly's face, we get two-foot pock-mark caverns and enough remorse to set the mood indigo for a dozen down-and-out divorced guys.
Even seven years after his marriage to Jamie (Keener) has ended, Los Angeles freelance editor John (Reilly) is falling apart at the notion that she's about to remarry. They're best friends these days, so Jamie and her fiancé Tim (Matt Walsh) insist that John tag along to a party.
When John gets way drunk and ducks into the bushes to, uh, water the daisies, Molly (Tomei) appears suddenly and alters John's course of action in at least two directions. They appear made for each other. And when they're at John's house nothing comes between them.
Molly's vague on the details of her life, though. So one night John follows his new girlfriend home. The next morning, another man strolls out on the front porch.
A middle-aged woman juggling a new boyfriend and the fragile emotions of an adult son is -- in itself -- hardly jaw-dropping screenplay fodder these days. But the Duplass brothers, who write and direct and allow their actors free rein to improvise, have upped the ante considerably.
Mom and Cyrus (Hill) are more than just mother and son. They are best friends. And I don't just mean they like to hang out together. They're the touchy-feely type of best friends. When Cyrus, a struggling new age musician, gets his music vibe on in the den, Mom dances along with him like you wouldn't expect; very close indeed.
Yuk? Almost, but not quite. The very thin line between comedy and tragedy is straddled throughout "Cyrus." Pain comes with love and Cyrus, it appears to John, comes with the territory.
Reilly, a gifted character actor, milks the morose perfectly. When "Cyrus" shifts into a "War of the Roses" thorny look at a horrible hook-up with a glimmer of hope, Reilly takes over, guiding younger and suddenly hot comic Hill through some difficult confrontational passages.
Tomei and Keener, rock solid actors of the female persuasion, are up to the challenge of dredging dismal emotions in the name of entertainment as well.
The Coen Brothers ("O Brother Where Art Thou?") have for years been where the Duplass boys are striving to get to. The latter duo isn't quite there yet. "Cyrus" spends too much time in the emotional darkness to maintain even a pained comic tone.
They're getting there, though.
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