Cherry is a 2021 crime drama about a college dropout-turned-army veteran who turns to drugs and bank robbery after suffering from PTSD.
It’s an awful feeling to be let down by a movie that seemed to have so much potential. When you first see the trailer, you’re immediately intrigued and looking forward to seeing it. That’s the case with Cherry. Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, who are best known for directing Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, they have decided to take on their first post-Marvel feature, which is now available for everyone to watch on Apple TV+. The screenwriters Angela Russo-Otstot and Jessica Goldberg adapt Nico Walker’s novel with the same name, which is based on a true story. Unfortunately, it’s just proof that even some incredibly talented filmmakers don’t always make good movies.
It stars Tom Holland, who reunites with the Russo brothers outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in the titular role of Cherry. He’s a college dropout-turned-army veteran who suffers from PTSD and eventually starts to become addicted to drugs. In order to pay off his addiction and take care of his girlfriend Emily (Ciara Bravo), he resorts to bank robbery as taking drugs has put his life in debt.
Without a doubt, Holland is easily the best part of the entire movie. He will always be known as Spider-Man to his fans, but his performance is amazing with his wide range of emotions. You can feel the pain that he’s suffering after the war, which is something the filmmakers should have explored a lot better. He really does try his best with a messy script, but it’s unfortunate that he still can’t save the film. Bravo is also great as Cherry’s love interest, and you actually do sort of care about their relationship. However, the characterization for the supporting roles is incredibly weak. The rest of the cast is quite forgettable and underutilized, because they don’t add anything interesting to the premise. They’re just there for the sake of being there without being all that important.
The biggest problem with Cherry is that it suffers from a severe case of identity crisis. It’s all over the place. Does it want to be a crime thriller? War drama? Romance? It tries to be all of them, but it never succeeds. It’s tonally inconsistent throughout, and it’s so jarring. There are also some questionable stylistic choices that take you out of it. The Russo brothers are highly recognized to be visionary directors, especially if you’ve seen their MCU titles, but their style of filmmaking doesn’t always work for a story like this. Holland provides narration for the majority of the film, which is very irritating when it has to provide a ton of unnecessary exposition to the audience. With a long runtime of 141 minutes, it has a lot of pacing issues, and you start to feel bored as it goes on. You can feel the ambition that the Russo brothers have worked so hard on, but it’s sad that it doesn’t pay off.
Bottom line, Cherry is one of the most exhausting and disappointing films that you’ll ever see. While Holland is outstanding as the main protagonist, his performance does not save this mess. It’s actually quite a fascinating premise to see on screen, but the execution is unfortunately really bad. It makes you wonder where it all went wrong.