26 Feb Cherry Review

CHERRY

dir. Russo Bros starring Tom Holland, Ciara Bravo, Jack Reynor

An Army medic with PTSD becomes addicted to opioids and starts robbing banks to pay for the addiction.

Cherry, the latest offering from smash hit directors the Russo Bros and bright young star Tom Holland is, at its essence, a film about the unfortunate life of a young man after enlisting in the Army. Following the classic 3 act structure, Cherry’s tale can be clearly delineated into 3 parts: his early life in meeting future wife Emily, his time served in the Army during war as a front line medic, and his downward spiral as an opioid addict. The first part shows Cherry as he’s down on his luck, struggling to scrape by, and his budding relationship with Emily. Due to miscommunication between Emily and Cherry, he enlists in the Army as we are hit with a complete tonal shift, focusing on Cherry on the front lines of battle as a combat medic. The stress, the chaos, and the frustration of incompetent leadership all drive Cherry to become mentally unhinged when he returns home. He seeks to alleviate that stress by becoming addicted to opioids before turning to harder substances as he eventually drags his wife down with him.

Given the source material, Tom Holland certainly tries his best. A valiant effort at anchoring the movie, it’s clear he put all he had into the role; in fact this may be one of Holland’s finest performances. He plays all the angles well enough to remind the audience why he’s of the industry’s beloved up-and-comers. The same could be said for Ciara Bravo, if she was given any material to work with. Aside from dutiful-wife-turned-addict, there isn’t much for her to latch onto. The relationship between Cherry and Emily feels more like one of plot convenience than it does natural. Jack Reynor’ brief stint in the film is also worthy of highlight; he’s only on screen for a handful of minutes but still manages to bring the charm and energy that he brings to every roll.

Cherry is by far the most serious material directors Joe and Anthony Russo have tackled to date. While fantastically shot, the movie suffers from overstylization and unnecessary flourishes. With a 240 minute runtime, the film’s second act crawls to a snail’s pace, seriously hindered by a lack of editing. Somewhere in this movie is a story that highlights the correlation between an alarming lack of care for military veterans, addiction, and desperation. Unfortunately, there’s too much noise to cut clearly through to that story. As vaulted as the Russos have become, this is a project where their reach clearly over exceeded their grasp.

Overall, Cherry is an overly bloated mess of a film that caters to a pair of directors that severely needed studio oversight. Tom Holland’s solid performance, along with Ciara Bravo are not enough to save what could’ve been a tight, taught two hour affair. Instead, the downward spiral of Cherry wears thin and begins to tire quickly, leaving the viewer exhausted and worn down in the worst possible way. The film seems to be an attempt from both Holland as an actor and the Russos as directors to redefine themselves after their superhero boom but ultimately falls flat. Cherry opens in select theaters on February 26th and streams on Apple TV+ March 12th.

Review by Darryl Mansel