Welcome to The Morning After, where I share with you what movies I’ve seen over the past week. Below, you will find short reviews of those movies along with a star rating. Full length reviews may come at a later date.

So, here is what I watched this past week:

Cyrano

Joe Wright’s directorial style is unique enough to make him one of the more compelling auteurs in modern cinema. It’s also familiar enough to make his films accessible to wide array of People. Cyrano has a lot of both elements together.

The story of Cyrano de Bergerac is that of a malformed and socially unacceptable poet who helps an attractive milquetoast woo the woman he loves. Herein, Cyrano is played by the fascinating Peter Dinklage and the love of his life, Roxanne, is embodied by the affable Haley Bennett. Kelvin Harrison Jr. takes on the role of her appealing suiter Christian while the role of the man who controls her financial destiny, De Guiche, is portrayed by Ben Mendelsohn. It’s a superb cast with Bashir Salahuddin rounding out the cast list as the captain of the guard.

Although most will be familiar with Dinklage’s work from the popular television fantasy series Game of Thrones, he and the entire cast have had long and admirable careers as actors and each brings their talent and presence to roles that have been done countless times before, but seldom better. Dinklage, for his part, is almost solely responsible for the film’s success. While his skill became apparent to many after his starring role in The Station Agent, it has reached stratospheric heights with this lively, yet bleak effort.