CYRUS

This dark and not-so-much-funny-as-weirdly-uncomfortable comedy-drama trains its lens on an unconventional love triangle between a guy, a gal and the gal’s obsessively possessive adult son.

John (John C. Reilly) is having a bit of a hard time. He declares himself depressed and lonely, and his ex-wife (Catherine Keener) is about to remarry. But one drunken ramble at a party leads him into the welcoming arms of Molly (Marisa Tomei), a lovely woman who’s rather taken by John’s brutal honesty and self-awareness. Much to John’s astonishment, Molly is interested in him and, before the end of the night, the two are in bed together.

But shortly after they begin dating, John learns Molly has been hiding something from him – namely, her 21-year-old son, Cyrus (Jonah Hill). Seemingly amiable and friendly, he soon begins exhibiting odd quirks and it becomes obvious to John that Cyrus has a rather unhealthy, wildly codependent and moderately creepy attachment to his somewhat oblivious mom. Once that Oedipal cat is out of the bag, Cyrus makes it clear to his mom’s new beau: you’ll never have her. Cue a bizarre psychological game where John and Cyrus vie for Molly’s attention while Molly remains clueless.

While the performances are all solid, and Hill turns in some nicely balanced work that keeps Cyrus hostile but sympathetic, something feels a bit lacking in the execution of this twisted tale. The momentum picks up once Cyrus’ cover is blown, but the one-upsmanship between Cyrus and John is where the (admittedly still dark) comedy could have been amped up a notch. As it is, their adversarial relationship is only really explored in a handful of scenes, when it could have been expanded over a few more.

Likewise, John’s reluctance to reveal anything to Molly seems more like a handy plot device than a realistic choice. Yes, she’s a great thing in his life... but even that isn’t fully fleshed out. Why is Molly so amazing in John’s eyes? Why is she so precious that he’s terrified of losing her? All the audience sees is that she’s pretty and she’s willing to sleep with John... which, I suppose, is enough fodder for our hero. And perhaps I’ve missed the point of the movie, which might actually be about two men with unhealthy and unrealistic attachments to the same woman.

All that said, I enjoyed the film. It has its flaws, but is nonetheless a previously unseen onscreen examination of the unusual and complex nature of modern-day relationships.