Cut Bank - C

Rated R, 93 minutes
Wes's Grade: C

"Cut Bank" has a great cast, but is a routine, unoriginal thriller

"Cut Bank" refers to a real-life, small Montana town that is the setting for this well-acted but derivative thriller that has a Coen brothers/"Fargo"-esque ring to it. Dwayne McLaren (Liam Hemsworth) dreams about escaping small town life in Cut Bank, Montana with his vivacious girlfriend Cassandra (Teresa Palmer). When Dwayne witnesses an awful crime involving a beloved postman (Bruce Dern), he tries to leverage a bad situation into a scheme to get rich quickly but he finds that fate and an unruly accomplice are working against him. Thrust into the middle of a police investigation spearheaded by the local sheriff (John Malkovich), everything goes from bad to worse. Directed by TV director Matt Shakman in his feature debut and written by Robert Patino, writer for the TV show "Sons of Anarchy," the crime drama "Cut Bank" (which was actually filmed in Canada and not the real-life small town it takes its title from) has a stellar ensemble cast and a nice, dark tone, but it otherwise goes through some routine, predictable paces. It's no small coincidence that several cast members, including Billy Bob Thornton, Malkovich and Michael Stuhlbarg, have Coen brothers or "Fargo" connections, with Thornton in the TV show version of the film, especially since this is essentially a less fun and unremarkable rip-off of that film. Speaking of which, "Cut Bank" could've used more of the Coen's dark humor, as well there's not a sympathetic character in the bunch, even Malkovich's pesky sheriff, and it's hard to buy into why things decide to turn violent in this small town after all these years, though Dern was fun as the cranky postman with some secrets (however, Stuhlbarg is miscast and Hemsworth too bland to carry the movie). The unoriginal "Cut Bank" is a second-rate, unremarkable thriller with a handful of decent moments, but it would've worked better on the small screen.