Cyrus is an interesting story from the Duplass brothers about a guy down on his luck who finds the girl of his dreams. One problem, she’s really close to her only son…who’s 21 and still lives at home. Let’s back up a bit. We join John, played by John C. Reilly, as he continues to live his mundane single life after splitting with his ex-wife (Catherine Keener) seven years before. He’s still on good terms and pretty close to his ex-wife but she and her fiancé want him to get on with his own life and find somebody else. They invite him to a party which he reluctantly goes to and eventually makes an ass of himself in the process. But in the same night at the same party, he meets Molly, played by Marissa Tomei, and they hit it off right away…in a quirky way. The dialogue between them and throughout the movie is hilariously awkward. The only thing more awkward is Molly’s son Cyrus, played by Jonah Hill, and the relationship the mother and son have together.
John gets a little weirded out by what he observes in the relationship between Molly and her son so he gets his ex-wife to scope them out for him and give him her honest opinion. She approves Cyrus and Molly and thinks that they’re a great fit for John. Cyrus also approves John for his mother so they try to make it all work. However, all is not what it seems with Cyrus.
Cyrus (Jonah Hill) and his mom (Marisa Tomei) meeting John (John C. Reilly) and his ex-wife (Catherine Keener) in the park
The movie starts off really funny and keeps that upbeat awkward tone for quite a while. But a little after halfway through the film, the whole mood of the movie shifts to be serious…really serious. It almost hits you like a brick wall. You go from joking with the characters to watching their lives from a third party view. The shift was a little too much for me and almost made me feel like I was watching two separate movie. I wanted to go back to the first movie, but it was too late…the Duplass brothers were taking me on another path to try and connect to the characters on a different level.
John (John C. Reilly) talking to Cyrus (Jonah Hill)
All of the cast deliver incredible performances which make this movie work. Cyrus not only tricks the characters in the movie but he has to trick the audience too to make us wonder if John is just being paranoid or if Cyrus really does approve of him to be with his mom. Molly isn’t just overprotective of her only son, but Cyrus is overprotective of his only mom too. It’s an interesting chemistry between this weird love triangle (I know it’s wrong to put it that way since two sides of this triangle is mother and son – but it’s as awkward as this movie makes it, trust me). This film fell a little short for me because of the significant switch and ending. The first half was a great experience with these hilarious characters…the second half was too dull and depressing.
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Tags: Catherine Keener, Cyrus, John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill, Marisa Tomei, South By Southwest, SXSW
Matthew Fong created advancescreenings.com and is the lead contributor. He watches every type of movie and will try almost anything twice. You can follow him on twitter here: @matthewfong
