The Cut | Sean Ellis

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Orlando Bloom And Sean Ellis Talk About Star’s Transformation Into Past-His-Prime Boxer In ‘The Cut’: “He Was Willing To Have His Nose Broken”

Sean Ellis’s sixth feature, following the deliriously atmospheric 19th-century vampire movie Eight for Silver (2021), is yet another curveball from the criminally underrated British director. Titled The Cut, it is the story of a past-his-prime boxer who goes behind his wife Caitlin’s back to accept a lucrative comeback fight in Las Vegas. But this is not yet another Rocky-style underdog story, the kind that culminates in the ring. Instead, it is a sometimes-shocking psychological thriller, a sort of boxing procedural that details the extreme lengths that cornered fighters will go to. On paper, it sounds like Southpaw, but in reality, it has a little more in common with this year’s Cannes hit The Substance, a visceral body-horror movie about a fading starlet (Demi Moore) and her desperate drive to maintain her fame.

In The Cut it is actor Orlando Bloom’s turn to defy expectations. As the boxer, the former Pirates of the Caribbean and Lord of the Rings star is a revelation. He’s not entirely unrecognizable as the matinee idol of the 2000s, but, thanks to the magic of prosthetics, he certainly looks like he’s been through the wringer, and his return to professional boxing is not a sure thing. In fact, the most suspense in the film is generated by the initial weigh-in, which will determine whether he even gets to fight in his own title category at all. Caitlin (Caitríona Balfe), his wife and his trainer, can only get him so far, and when the team gets to Vegas, the boxer meets the charismatic Boz (John Turturro). Boz hooks into the boxer’s insecurities, drawing him into an increasingly dangerous training and weight-loss routine.

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Outlander star Caitriona Balfe says boxing for The Cut with Orlando Bloom was a lot more fun than wearing corsets

Outlander star Caitriona Balfe steps out of the stone circle and into the ring for The Cut, director Sean Ellis' psychological sports drama.

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly on Friday at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival where the film had its world premiere, Balfe says she "really got into boxing" for the role of Caitlin, the wife and trainer of Orlando Bloom's protagonist, known only as The Boxer, in the film.

Was it more fun than putting on a corset as Claire Fraser on Outlander? "Hell yes," says Balfe. "And it was undoing a lot of the corset damage, I have to say. A decade of wearing a corset has done wonders to my back."

Described as an exploration of the "wounds that will not heal," The Cut follows Bloom's retired fighter and his obsession with getting back into the ring after a nasty cut took him out of commission a decade ago. John Turturro also stars as Boz, a brash trainer not above using every technique — legal or not — to come out on top.

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Looks like Joaquin has some competition in the weight-loss department

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Trailer:

THE CUT | OFFICIAL TRAILER | IN CINEMAS SEPTEMBER 5 | Altitude Films - YouTube

In UK and Irish Cinemas September 5

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Metacritic