DVD Review: Cut Bank

I think IMDb trivia is lying to me.

Per IMDb, the script for Cut Bank made the infamous "Blacklist" for best unproduced screenplays in 2009. Either that's total bullshit, or the ending changed drastically from the screenplay back in 09. This review in the final paragraph will contain spoilers for the ending, because I can't get around talking about it to explain why this film is ultimately pretty ridiculous. 

Dwayne (Liam Hemsworth) hates living in Cut Bank, MT. But he has to take care of his ailing father, so he feels he's stuck. He wants to leave for "the big city" with his girlfriend, Cassandra (Teresa Palmer) but one day while they're recording a video for her audition in the Miss Cut Bank pageant, they witness the murder of the local mail man. (Bruce Dern) They show the video to the beautiful cinnamon roll Sheriff Vodel(John Malkovich) and Cassandra's dad, Stan. (Billy Bob Thorton) They start to investigate, but at the same time a timid, stuttering man named Derby Milton (Michael Stuhlbarg) is dead set on finding out who did this himself because he had a very important parcel on that mail truck.

The cast here is outstanding on paper. I threw this movie into my Netflix queue originally because I saw Teresa Palmer was in it, so it was really disappointing to find out she's terrible in it. I love her, I've never seen her be terrible in anything, but what was she thinking? There was nothing redeemable or even remotely interesting about Cassandra. Her whole purpose was to stare at Dwayne lovingly and somehow think it's okay to stay in town for a pageant despite her boyfriend literally telling her SOMEONE IS TRYING TO KILL HIM. The only characters that have any meat to them are Stuhlbarg's, who is quite brilliant, and Bruce Dern, who gets to tell a few people to go fuck themselves. That's the high point of the film.

It does peak interest throughout, but when it gets to the climax, it's like all logic gets thrown out the window. Spoiler time - So Dwayne worked with Georgie and others to stage his murder to get some reward money so he can leave his small town life behind. Which all would've gone over smoothly if Derby wasn't looking for his damn parcel - which turns out to be a fucking lunch box for a picture he's recreating in his basement. So Derby beats Georgie to death (Remember, this is the mail man that was supposedly shot in the video) for not telling him where his parcel is. He finds Dwayne and Cassandra and holds them hostage while they take Derby to his package in a storage unit. Dwayne nonchalantly signals the employee there to call 911. Derby gets caught by Sherrif Vodel. Vodel then takes Dwayne and Stan into the morgue to show them Georgie's body. Vodel, who throughout this entire movie has been so straight laced that he's never seen a murder before, takes out his gun and shoots Georgie's dead body so that the bullet holes in the video are actually there. I guess he didn't realize that coroners can tell if bodies were harmed after that, but what ever. Then he basically tells Dwayne "Nice plan you had there, take your money and go live a better life." And Stan, who seems to dislike Dwayne throughout the movie was like "Yeah, go, and don't tell my daughter. But take her with." WHAT?! They're just going to cover up a felony just like that? There's no reason to help Dwayne. Vodel and Stan are risking their lives/careers for this random kid? No way. I'm sorry, but this is just stupid.

Recommended: No

Grade: D (Should be an F, but I can't do that to Stuhlbarg and Dern)

Memorable Quote: "Y-y-y-you know what? Go fuck yourself." - Georgie (Bruce Dern)