‘The Cut’ review: Orlando Bloom gives a knock-out performance in otherwise bland boxing drama

Dir: Sean Ellis. UK/US. 2024. 96mins

A committed, body-and-soul performance from Orlando Bloom is the main event in The Cut. Sean Ellis’s visceral tale of a sporting underdog tries to defy convention by looking beyond the physical demands of a title fight to address weightier issue around violence, trauma and toxic masculinity. An increasingly overwrought approach undermines its better instincts and creates an uneven affair, but the presence of Bloom shoud draw modest audiences when the film opens in the US and Uk on September 5.

Bloom makes the most of a demanding role

Bloom’s unnamed Irish boxer had success within his grasp until a Las Vegas title fight left him reeling from the humiliation of defeat. Ellis (Metro Manila, Anthropoid, The Cursed), who also serves as his own cinematographer, emphasises the brutal nature of the fight as pulverising blows are traded and blood is spattered on the faces in the crowd. Ten years later, Bloom’s boxer and his wife Caitlin (Caitriona Balfe) run a community gym in Ireland. A younger generation shows no respect for someone who could have been a contender, and his days are spent teaching children, mopping floors and cleaning toilets. The broad brushstrokes storytelling is a sign of things to come.

The film’s hard to swallow premise has a big Las Vegas fight in limbo after one of the boxers dies. A headline-grabbing replacement is required and Bloom could be that man. ”People like a comeback kid story,”  explains promoter Donnie (Gary Beadle). Deciding that a second chance at glory is something he has to grab, the boxer and Caitlin head to Las Vegas with one week to drop 26 pounds and make the cut.

Working from a story by Mark Lane, Justin Bull’s screenplay has set the stage for what we imagine will neatly fit into the Rocky template. Inevitably there are numerous montage sequences of sparring, pounding the treadmill and sweating off the excess pounds in which Bloom displays a gritty determination. The actor is said to have lost over 50 lbs for the role, and his physical transformation is a compelling element of the story.

Realising that more is required of him, the boxer falls under the spell of ruthless trainer Boz (John Turturro) who promises to get him to an ideal weight by any means necessary. The restricted diet, constant exercise and unbearable pressure combine to make the boxer increasingly detached from reality. A drip-feed of flashbacks reveal the sources of his childhood trauma. There are issues with self-esteem, bullying and the fate of his mother.

Ellis leans in to the lurid to convey the boxer’s mental problems, serving up hallucinations and sickly green filters. As Bloom grows gaunt, the film edges closer to body horror and there are even echoes of The Substance (2024) in the price paid by someone desperate to reclaim a lost youth. 

The film does make some interesting choices, not least in allowing the viewer to hear radio commentary on the big fight but never see a blow being struck. The cast provide good value, with a suitably intense Turturro bringing conviction to the callous trainer forever spouting motivational advice and tough guy repartee. Balfe lends warmth and weariness to Caitlin, giving her more substance than the role might suggest.

Yet it remains Bloom’s film as he makes the most of the kind of demanding role that rarely comes his way. His physical presence is eye-catching but he also makes the boxer a touching, sympathetic figure. Taciturn and wary as a wounded animal, he is transformed into a positively Shakespearean figure as we witness the torment he endures.