The Cut is a boxing movie with (apart from a brief opening sequence) no boxing in it. Instead it focuses on the equally brutal, but less visibly part of the sport, weight loss, as a former contender spirals into madness while trying to shed an insane amount of heft in order to secure a last minute return to the big time.
Orlando Bloom is a boxer (he is never named during the film) who lost his one title shot and now runs a gym with his partner and trainer Caitlin (Catriona Balfe). He retains a reputation for being an exciting knockout specialist so when a title contender dies weeks before an upcoming Las Vegas showdown, scary promoter Donny (Gary Beadle) offers him the chance of a glamorous comeback. The catch? He needs to shed thirty two pounds (over two stone or fourteen kilos) in a week. Caitlin agrees to him giving it a go provided they do things by the book, but when traditional methods fail, John Turturro's Boz enters the equation and pushes Bloom way beyond the bounds of what is legal or ethical.
Everything starts off very formulaically. Bloom's boxer is your stereotypical has been fighter, disrespected by the up-and-comers in his gym and carrying out his daily tasks with a miserable monotony while dreaming of what could have been. When he is given an opportunity to get back in the game he gives his concerned partner the standard spiel about a piece of him being missing and how he can't move on with life when he has unfinished pugilistic business. They decamp to a Vegas hotel and begin the impossible weight loss journey with a couple of good-intentioned coaches. So far, so serviceable, but everything kicks into gear when Turturro gets involved. He is a force of nature, a single minded wrecking ball who couldn't care less about the boxer's well-being and sets about separating him from everyone who does in order to laser focus in on shedding the necessary pounds. Turturro plays the part with such focused menace there are times you think Boz may actually be The Devil.
From here on in the film becomes a battle of wills between Boz and Caitlin and between the boxer and himself. As the effects of starvation, dehydration, blood loss and pills mount up we are essentially in psychological horror territory and its a tough watch. Tough to watch the people who are trying to protect the boxer slowly whittle away and be replaced by people who'd rather watch him die than miss the target weight, and tough to watch the physical devastation heaped upon him. You can feel your own skin shrivel up as every molecule of moisture is squeezed out of his muscled frame and immersive camerawork from director Sean Ellis sells the woozy lightheadedness of man so malnourished he is losing all sense of place and self. The journey is underpinned by a performance of complete commitment from Bloom, who underwent his own period of intense weight loss prior to filming, leaving him suffering some of the effects he portrays on screen for real.
There are a couple of things in the film which aren't on the level of the central psychological battle. Throughout the runtime we are shown glimpses of the boxer's childhood in troubles era Northern Ireland, and, without going into specifics, its a backstory so bleak it verges on parody. While this is meant to inform the reasons for the main characters single-mindedness, it also acts as a get-out-of-jail free card for Boz's insane shredding techniques and the dangerous nature of extreme weight loss in general. If past trauma is partly responsible for the boxer's struggles during the process, does that mean it is OK for other people? The script also struggles to wrap things up cleanly, passing a couple of satisfactory endpoints by on its way to possibly giving a little too much resolution. In terms of small details, it's a little frustrating to watch the team agonise over every fraction of a pound but not bother to shave all their man's hair completely off.
The fairly by numbers opening and flabby ending don't detract from the strength of the film when it's in full flight, where powerhouse performance from Bloom and Turturro give you a glimpse of a level of self inflicted misery only the most committed can put themselves through. It deserves respect for providing a unique look at a sport that has been cinematically examined so many times before.
7 vending machine treats instantly thrown back up out of 10.
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