Peter Dinklage Is Made for Romance
Thursday, November 16, 2023 at 6:00PM 
Rebecca Miller's new film, She Came to Me, is a bit of a mess, stitching themes and storylines, wild tonal swerves, and overwrought ideas that don't fit together all that well. This fate's especially disappointing because the project seemed ripe with promise and potential. Most of all, it looked like an excellent opportunity for Hollywood to embrace actor Peter Dinklage as a romantic figure. Though he reached peak fame by playing Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones, a performance of wit and projected stratagem, it can be argued that his best calling card is an ability to illustrate the heart's amorous yearnings…
The first big proof that Peter Dinklage was made for love stories can be found in The Station Agent, and the actor's easy, but not uncomplicated, chemistry with Patricia Clarkson. Together, they sing a rhapsody of spiraling melancholy, reaching to the other in recognition fallen to rebuke. The film is, above all else, a character study with an emphasis on loneliness, honing on the anxieties of connection and how it can sometimes offer a reprieve from pain. Jump a decade into the future, and you'll find a similar predicament, though tempered by the limitations of a much smaller role.
There's something special to how he negotiates scenes with Frances McDormand in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, acting as a puncture into that film's misanthropic heart. Sincerity overwhelms the actor's countenance, even as the script piles cruelties onto his minor character. Again, that desire for connection is sublimated over his screen presence, suggesting a different, more loving narrative at the margins of the plot. But of course, for maximum romance, one need not go further than Dinklage in the titular role of Joe Wright's Cyrano.
He makes love feel palpable, a force bursting from his eyes to overwhelm the picture, escaping from the frame into the audience's hearts. It's an ability often taken for granted that when in absence, can sabotage a whole story from within. And so, it's a testament to Dinklage's talent that he can produce some of that magic in the contrived madness of She Came to Me. Look, it's there in how he and Anne Hathaway share the domestic space, the spark of his first meeting with Marisa Tomei. Now, all that's needed is for Hollywood to wake up and build a proper vehicle for Peter Dinklage, screen lover par excellence.
You can get She Came to Me on most major platforms, available to rent and purchase. Cyrano's on Amazon Prime Video and Paramount Plus, where you'll also find The Station Agent. Three Billboards is on Fubo TV, FX Now, and DirecTV.
Reader Comments (4)
IMO Cyrano is some of his worst work. Ugh that film.
Frank Zappa -- I must confess I'm a CYRANO apologist through and through.
Cláudio — If you ever get a chance, check out the National Theater production on NT Live with James McAvoy as Cyrano. Fantastic.
I saw “She Came to Me” (in the theatre!) and found it unexpected fun.
Afterwards I thought, yes I guess you could call that a rom-com but it just shows how big and wild and varied the genre could be. I liked the tonal shifts, and the unresolved ideas, and the lively fullness of it.
And of course I always love a movie where the cast is chosen because they are good, not necessarily “names”, or considered box office, or currently popular or in fashion.
And all this cast is so great! The young lovers are both sweet and smart, the girl’s mother adds a grounding in heartfelt realism, and Marisa Tomei is a fabulous character of imagination that lifts the narrative into a wonderful story book quality. Anne Hathaway is unafraid of any challenge, and as you say, Peter Dinklage is a great romantic lead.