I remembered this film as extremely charming and thought we could use the full exposure to Steve Martin's talents.
Specs:
Just over an hour and a half; rated PG
Our family's average rating on a scale from 1-10:
7.63
More about the film and our reaction to it:
For a while, I felt that I was watching an almost perfect movie. The scenery is beyond gorgeous; the quaint little idyllic town forms a perfect setting for this clever re-imagining of the Cyrano de Bergerac story. And Steve Martin at the height of his talents is awesome to behold. But, as the film went on, the weaknesses began to show. Oddly, I'm not sure the movie actually got worse in the latter half so much as that I became more aware of its flaws as the mega impact of its initial charm subsided and as I acclimated to the heady power of Martin's performance. It is a touching and lovely film in many ways. But it is also seriously flawed.
Beyond Martin's hilarious and touching performance and the funny antics of the local fire department, you find a rather thin film. Sure the fun take on the Cyrano story is seductive, but it also feels a bit absurd if you look beyond the charm. Daryl Hannah falls for handsome Chris in an absurdly quick and superficial way, and, even more bizarrely, somehow fails to notice how different he is in real life from his letters. (Perhaps a better script could have made this seem plausible?) Also, I'm sorry, she's beautiful, but Hannah's acting chops are definitely minimal. Her loveliness just isn't quite enough for me to be OK with Steve Martin falling so deeply in love with her. Setting a classic love story in modern times presents difficulties in making outmoded romantic mores fit modern characters' motivations and seem reasonable. This film doesn't succeed with that ... in the way "Clueless", for instance, does.
Despite these shortcomings, I would still recommend the film as a satisfying cinematic experience overall. A caveat, though: I would recommend this film for families who are comfortable with with adult relationships. There are many scenes and a good deal of dialog that goes directly to characters wanting to have sex or having sex. The film is not visually explicit at all. (Though there is a scene at the very beginning where Daryl Hannah gets locked out of her house as her robe gets caught in the door and ends up outside naked. This scene is played for laughs and is not explicit). But the dialog definitely pushed boundaries of what I thought was appropriate several times.
Iconic image:
