Peter Dinklage plays Cyrano de Bergerac in the surprisingly entertaining Joe Wright musical conspicuously titled Cyrano, a fun if slightly stuffy affair about an ugly dude who loves a beautiful woman and goes about professing his love by doing the natural thing any man would do: getting her to fall in love with another dude.

It all makes sense if you don’t think about it. At all.

In a story that has been remade many times over the years, Dinklage of course isn’t ugly but he is a dwarf, a physical disadvantage at least for the sake of the film at hand. Dinklage as always is a burst of energy onscreen, throwing barbs as well as romantic epithets as easily as he breathes.

Beyond Dinklage, Cyrano is… fine. The musical numbers are decent but feel ripped from another era (hint: they are); compared to more modern music the numbers feel basic in tone and delivery, even if they still entertain. The actors—even Dinklage—are limited or at least overly dictated to by the material, which feels like more than a stage play than it should.

Early in his career, Joe Wright was an invigorating and inventive director—there was a short period of time I rabidly anticipated his next project—but that time has long gone. Cyrano looks and feels like it could have been made by anyone.

Even if Cyrano doesn’t set any new bars, the movie holds your attention throughout thanks to Dinklage’s presence and the timeless story at hand. It’s stuffy, but fun, and that will be enough for most viewers.

Review by Erik Samdahl.