By Divya Rajagopal
TORONTO (Reuters) – “The Cut,” which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival this week, stars Orlando Bloom as an over-the-hill boxer with a dark past looking to make a comeback, but it is more a psychological thriller than a traditional sports story.
Made on a shoestring budget, “The Cut” focuses on the boxer’s inner battles. It is a deep dive into the tenacity of the human mind and its effect on the physical self.
Bloom plays a character named Boxer who must make some painful sacrifices to prepare for one last shot at fame and fortune in the ring. His foil is the maniac coach played by John Turturro who drives Boxer without pity, seeing the athlete as a pawn in his own quest for glory. The movie is punctuated by flashbacks to Boxer’s abusive childhood.
For Bloom, getting under the skin of his character was an obvious physical challenge, making him starve himself in order to achieve the drastic weight loss that the role demanded.
“It was a crazy regime to get down to that,” Bloom said on Friday, referring to his weight loss.
“I had underestimated how hard it is to make boxing work. There is a lot that goes into it, but I was grateful that I got to do it,” Bloom told the audience after the film’s screening.
The film also features “Outlander” star Caitriona Balfe as the Bloom character’s partner in a boxing gym.
Most of the film takes place in a hotel room, presenting a challenge to director Sean Ellis, whose credits include the crime drama “Metro Manila” (2013) and war movie “Antropoid” (2019).
“That was horrifying to me as I was thinking how can I make this look good,” he told the TIFF audience. “I had a zoom lens, and I had control over it all the time. And once we started shooting, I wanted to keep going at it.”
Turturro, whose extensive resume include the 2023 television series “Severance,” said his character reminded him of his own experiences with overambitious and manipulative film directors who would go to any length to get what they wanted.
“I’ve worked with psychopathic directors in the ’80s, who were like possessive and they put you in dangerous situations,” he said. “This is a human thing that happens in life, and there is a bonding that happens.”
(Reporting by Divya Rajagopal in Toronto; Edited by Frank McGurty and Diane Craft)
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