Orlando Bloom leads the cast as an unnamed boxer in this ultimately rewarding boxing drama about a fighter facing a battle outside of the ring in order for him to step into it. The Cut review continues below
If there was a genre we could not possibly resist here at THN, then it is the boxing movie. Whether it is the original Rocky movies, the later Creed offshoots, or even the likes of Antoine Fuqua’s Southpaw or the Denzel Washington-led true story of The Hurricane, we’re always first in line. When The Cut showed up on our release schedule, we were obviously bursting with delight.
Starring and produced by Orlando Bloom, and directed by Anthropoid‘s Sean Ellis, The Cut is not your standard fisticuffs fare, as most of the action in this one takes place out of the ring. Bloom’s character is known simply as ‘The Boxer’, a forty-something former pro who had to give up the game due to a career-ending injury. He’s been out of action for a decade and now focuses his efforts on his own gym, a business that he and his former trainer and partner, Caitlin (Caitríona Balfe), have invested all their time and money in. An offer from across the pond from an American promoter Donny (Gary Beadle), provides the boxer with a potential prize fight in Las Vegas with a YouTuber that could see him return to the limelight and land him with a boat-load of cash. The only issue is that the fight is at the super welterweight level (154 lbs), and he sits some 30-odd pounds overweight with just a week to shift it.
The Cut, a title which presumably refers to the boxer’s injury that denied him a longer career, and indeed the level in which he needs to make the weight, chronicles the week leading up to the fight, and the sacrifices that the fighter must make in terms of food and water intake to make ‘the cut’, and get his one final shot at glory.
As stated previously, most of the action takes place in boxed-off hotel rooms in the bowels of a Las Vegas casino rather than under he lights of a boxing arena. Bloom’s Boxer initially has tutelage from Balfe’s Caitlin until more extreme methods are needed from John Turturro’s Boz who takes the fighter on in the final days, promising to deliver him at weight in time for the fight. Turturro is magnificent, as always, as the unrelenting, unforgiving Boz while Balfe’s performance has depth as the trainer with vested interest in the talent. Bloom himself throws himself at the role. Certainly, it looks as though he’s gone through the ringer, reportedly losing a staggering 50 pounds for the role, but the film doesn’t quite manage to go the full distance.
The flashback scenes taking us back to the boxer’s childhood days during The Troubles in Northern Ireland seem out of place and distracting from the main events, and the screenplay suffers from pacing issues during its mid-section, but the engrossing nature of the narrative, and those three central performances, do keep us going through some pretty upsetting scenes that’ll have you pushing away your popcorn more than once.
The Cut ain’t no Rocky, nor does it want to be, and while it wishes that it reaches depth with its main story arc and the aforementioned subplots, in the great polar opposite to the subject matter, it does ultimately come up light in its delivery. That all said, it’s a rewarding watch, and an original story well worth attention in the hangover of this summer’s deluge of dire sequels and redos.
The Cut is released in cinemas on 5th September 2025.
The Cut
Summary
Orlando Bloom leads this rewarding story set away from the boxing arena with great performances, particularly from Caitríona Balfe and the always reliable John Turturro.
