Starring
Nigel O'Neill, Jozef Pawlowski, Susan Lynch, Stuart Graham, David
Pearse, Anna Prochniak, Stella McCusker, Ian McElhinney. Directed by
Chris Baugh. (2017, 99 min).
I
had to look up the title's meaning. All I found was an
article from The Irish News covering this film's Belfast premiere, which stated
it's "an agri-slang expression for 'unbecoming weather'."
That's certainly fitting, considering the cold, grey, dreary look of
the Ireland locations.
The
term might also apply to its grizzled protagonist, Donal
(Nigel O'Neill), who's pretty-much a Gloomy Gus before his
mom, Florence, is brutally murdered in her own home. After two thugs return
to finish him off, Donal kills one and captures the
other, Bartosz (Jozef Pawlowski), who was forced into trying to kill
Donal by mobsters who have his sister (and turned her into a
prostitute). With Bartosz in-tow, Donal goes on the offensive,
heading to Belfast to avenge his mother and save Bartosz' sister. He
also learns why they targeted his mom in the first place: Florence has a
past he didn't know about, which connects her to vicious mob boss Frankie
Pierce (Susan Lynch).
 |
| "Yeah, he said his fridge is running. Now what?" |
Bad
Day for the Cut puts an interesting spin on the tried-and-true revenge
tale with a lovably-gruff, fallible main character who doesn't seem
to have a plan for anything beyond his next move. Donal is soft-spoken,
sympathetic and emotionally vulnerable, though not averse to burning bad guys' scalps with a scalding pot
'o beans when pushed too far. We also get the impression he knows
exacting revenge won't make him feel any better; it's simply
something he feels duty-bound to accomplish.
Less
effective are the plot revelations. Simply having Donal kill
everybody one-by-one until no one's left would have been lazy &
boring, but at the same time, overly-complicated story turns do make us a less
invested in Donal's quest for vengeance. Not helping matters is Lynch
as Pierce. She's a one-dimensional caricature from the get-go and
Lynch's performance borders on scenery-chewing, in complete contrast to
the tone and well-rounded characters writer-director Chris
Baugh worked so hard to establish.
Still,
Bad Day for the Cut is worth checking out. Moody, violent and
occasionally very funny, it gives us a main character
who's atypical of the revenge genre. The narrative backstory lessens
the overall impact and the denouement is sort-of maddening, but
until then, the film is fairly engaging.
On
side note...some viewers may want to use the subtitle option for this
one, as most of these characters have very thick accents and use a
great deal of regional slang.
EXTRA
KIBBLES
None
KITTY CONSENSUS:
NOT BAD...LIKE CAT CHOW
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