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“Where do you want me to start?” asks the titular “Cherry” (Tom Holland) and by the end of this harrowing 142 minute epic you will have gone through the mill of the most extreme of human emotions and two decades of a life “wasted on me” and of a man on the very edges of living, life, death and a shattering experience in between brought brilliantly and vividly to life by Holland. Widely acclaimed around the world as the current incumbent in the web slinging “Spiderman” franchise, this is a wild and brilliant departure for Holland who would follow this portrayal with yet another radical departure with this year’s PlayStation gaming crossover and hugely enjoyable “Uncharted”.
Plotting a similar course in many ways, the directing brothers of Anthony and Joe Russo are equally known around the world as the directors who brought us the latest instalments in the “Captain America” series of films as well as providing a spectacular back to back ending to the “Avengers” universe. From the larger Marvel universe they departed radically here before following with this year’s impressively enjoyable “The Gray Man” and, as with that film, the brothers have directed another gem but perhaps one that’s more difficult to love than this year’s follow up.
“Cherry” is a wild roller coaster of a ride, from prologue to epilogue and parts 1 through 5 that are all displayed on screen both with accompanying text and title slides as well as a graphic portrayal of the contents. Part 1 is based in 2002 and entitled “When life was beginning, I saw you” but the initial prologue propels us forward five years and the desperation of a 23 year old man appearing to be evading the police perhaps or certainly scoring in a kerbside drug deal, but what is evident through Cherry’s fourth wall breaks and statements to the audience or his continual background narration throughout the film is of a morose young man debating his personal worth, the wasting of a life on him, of everything being referred to constantly as “shit” and “everything was dismal as murder”.
The named parts of the film (Part 2 “Basic 2003”, Part 3 “Cherry”, Part 4 “Home” and Part 5 “Dope Life”) are perhaps obviously self explanatory and the route of life expected of the film’s protagonist, but this only tells a part of the horrific tale on display. Cherry also experiences existential thoughts on the world around him as well as infatuation, obsession, love and loss and all intertwined through a central narrative of a deeply unhappy human being experiencing the horrors of war and death and never recovering. The rounded cuddly language of today suggests that Cherry is suffering with chronic and debilitating “Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome” but when we replace this vacuous language with what it used to be more accurately called, shell shock, we see an already deeply unhappy man ripped and tortured to his very bone marrow, a horrifying shadow of a man a world away from the bright eyed high school achiever to a now desperately sad drunk and drug addict dependent upon the robbing of banks to feed his habit. Cherry is a self confessed “sad, crazy fuck after all the horrors I’d seen” and it’s a remarkable performance from Tom Holland.
Supporting Holland’s fantastic central performance is a brilliantly reflective and mirror image portrayal from Ciara Bravo as Cherry’s young bride and lifetime love “Emily”. Where Cherry leads, Emily follows, and when Cherry spirals out of control, Emily is swept up in the whirlwind of what is ostensibly a heart breaking love story. Aided and abetted by Jack Reynor as “Pills and Coke”, Michael Rispoli as “Tommy”, Jeff Wahlberg as “Jimenez” and Michael Gandolfini as “Cousin Joe”, they colour Cherry’s story with panache and more than a dash of twisted humour among the human debris of a return from the hell of war in Iraq and through the descent into the furthest reaches of a desperate human being who is utterly, utterly broken.
Beginning and ending, for this is also very much a story of endings and beginnings, with songs from Van Morrison, as well as a brilliant musical score from Henry Jackman that underpins the frustration of hopelessness and melancholia that seeps through this film, the opening 20 minutes is a tour de force that may entice you in further to first the horrors of the Iraq war, the depiction of which had heavy shades of Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket” before the “Trainspotting” type descent into the desolate and desperate life of a drug addict. “Cherry” isn’t a match for either of these two cinematic classics and it does lose significant momentum and deliberately so during Part 5, but it’s nowhere near the disaster painted by the few reviews I’ve read.
“Cherry” is a desperate and heart breaking watch at times but if you want a beautifully grim love story, this could well be the film for you!
Thanks for reading.
Here’s some promotional fluff for my self-published pride and joy all available via Amazon.