If you were to read the back of the eventual DVD case for Cyrus, you might think it was a big-budget comedy product of Judd Apatow or even Will Ferrell. After all, it stars frequent Ferrell collaborator John C. Reilly opposite Apatow regular Jonah Hill, battling comically for the affection of a woman.  Instead, it’s a low-budget product of directing brothers Jay and Mark Duplass, makers of festival favorites The Puffy Chair and Baghead.  Cyrus has also been a favorite on the film festival circuit and about half of the praise is deserved.

Reilly plays John, a middle-aged loser who is still depressed over his now seven-year-old divorce.  Invited to a party by his ex-wife in hopes that he will meet someone new, John meets Molly.  As the drunk John is urinating into a bush when she first meets him, it’s unclear if Molly is genuinely attracted to him or if she was just looking for an easy hookup with the party’s sad sack.  Nevertheless, the two of them end up having a couple of passionate nights together.

Wanting to know why Molly feels she has to sneak off in the middle of the night, John follows her home one night and learns that she has a son.  Not a young son, either, but Hill’s 22-year-old live-at-home son Cyrus.  Calling his mother “Molly” is the first indication that this mother-son relationship is anything but typical.  In fact, the closeness of their relationship causes John to see Cyrus as something of a romantic rivalry.  The two butt heads and it almost turns nasty.

I say almost, because this movie never takes its characters to the point that you think they might be heading.  At one point it seemed like this movie may have been heading for a much more violent finale—a point brought up in a post-screening Q & A—but instead it seems to wrap up in a hurry.

It’s a shame that the movie chooses to take the easy way out, because up to that point it is quite entertaining.  Reilly and Hill are both very talented comedic actors and watching them go head-to-head is a lot of fun, which is why it would have been nice had it continued and escalated.  The object of their affection, Marisa Tomei, looks as good as always, even with little to do otherwise.  It’s a real stretch of the imagination, however, that this woman would fall for a guy like John.

Although the casting and basic plot of Cyrus may be reminiscent of modern Hollywood comedies, the style of the film is definitely independent.  Of the two most obvious stylistic choices, one works and the other doesn’t.  The one that works is the use of dialogue on the soundtrack over images of non-speaking characters.  This works best for an early romantic scene between John and Molly, emphasizing the connection between the two characters.

The stylistic choice that doesn’t work is the busy, documentary-style camera that moves quickly around a room between characters, zooming in and out. It’s a technique that really isn’t necessary for the story and is more distracting than engaging.

Cyrus is enjoyable in its setup and lead characters, but the final execution doesn’t quite bring it all together.

Cyrus is rated R for “language and some sexual material.”  There are a couple of romantically filmed sex scenes, but it is really that language that speaks to the rating here.

Courtesy of a local publicist, Jeff attended a promotional screening of Cyrus.