What’s clear from the off is that John Braine’s 1960s novel lends itself more to soapy TV melodrama than the big screen. Even the cast, drawn from the likes of Coronation Street and Holby City, has a low-rent feel.Cutting It’s Jason Merrells is the Catholic schoolteacher who falls for a Protestant librarian in industrial mid-’60s Yorkshire, and while his forbidden sex scenes have passion, the dialogue is awkward and poorly timed.
The intrusive, sinister soundtrack adds further confusion to the tone, undermining attempts at levity. There’s little to like about the flat characters, so the plot fails to involve, ending as oddly and abruptly as it started. And while this may be intended as a criticism of denominational prejudice, there’s nothing to give the outdated concept contemporary relevance.