Rough Cut is an ill-constructed exercise in overextended ambitions. It’s a globe-spanning crime drama based in and around the “synthetic diamond trade” (nope, me neither) that has been assembled with minimal production funds (the budget is estimated at £150,000), a plethora of wildly unconvincing actors (Darren Day is the “star” turn here), a script that needs intense doctoring, and a seemingly slippery grasp on some of the very basic mechanics of film-making (to shoot at night you need lights!). The plot concerns a diamond expert called Carter Jefferson (Stanley J Browne, on one-note mode throughout), who gets pinged from Belize to New York to the French Riviera, hot on the trail of some dodgy synthetic gem stones and the dodgier criminals (they have stubble and accents) behind them. Meanwhile the movie tries desperately, via several lengthy, and endlessly repeated, interior yacht shots, to prove that it’s only slightly more accomplished than a student film. It’s not.
Owen Carey Jones, 15, 105 min