Cyrus - C-

A divorced, depressed John (John C. Reilly) hits it off with Molly (Marisa Tomei) at a party, but complications arise when he meets her jealous son Cyrus (Jonah Hill). Cyrus still lives at home and can easily manipulate his mom. The guys verbally, then physically fight behind Molly's back. John also has an ongoing relationship with his ex-wife (Catherine Keener) who is getting remarried. Their relationship is completely implausible (as are all of them in the film) . . .

Written and directed by Mark and Jay Duplass, the lack of a plot, senseless shaky camera, pointless zoom-ins, and cheap settings become tedious early on. The sparse music sounds like every other indie low budget film ever. The acting is OK, but the A- and B-listers can only do so much with the unlikable, unrealistic characters inherent in the script and the stilted dialogue. The Brothers Duplass are NYC "mumblecore" members and I think I've seen enough not to pursue any more of that movement's films.

The film works for about 5 minutes after Cyrus moves out and the couple tries to start a relationship. Their isolated loneliness and sadness is evoked well by Reilly and Tomei. But that ends abruptly when Cyrus reenters the film. Hill is funnier when he's very expressive (like in Superbad) or throwing in one-liners into a conversation (as in Judd Apatow's films). One of the best bits in The Other Guys is very hot women after Will Ferrell, played very well for laughs. Ferrell's Step Brothers co-star Reilly has 2 hot women after him here, but it's played straight and not acknowledged. There's no way either lady would choose this schlubby loser. Save for the aforementioned 5 minutes, there's not one honest moment in the film. C-