I really was looking forward to seeing this movie and I quite enjoy it, although I had to switch my suspension of disbelief willingly at many different moments.
When you know how much research Rostand put into his characters and the era that the play is set in, you can't really believe that it just came to him by accident as he stumbles on a courageous cafe owner, a mask from commedia dell'arte or a cute little theatre helper. The shortcuts to creation make for a movie with a fast pace but that has very little to do with historical reality. Still, Thomas Solivérès is charming and Olivier Gourmet steals every scene he's in, Leeb as Volny is just the right amount of cockiness and Mathilde Seigner is great too! I had a harder time believing in Lucie Boujenah's Jeanne, maybe because the quasi love story feels forced and there's no real chemistry between her and neither of the two men concerned.
You can still see the movie for the pleasure of the recreation of the ambiance in a theatre troop preparing for a play that's not even written and is opening in a few weeks... but if you have to choose, you'll do much better with the Cyrano movie with Gerard Depardieu, a real masterpiece.
Review of Cyrano, My Love
