by Frank Calvillo
The moviegoing public has always had a strong affinity towards boxing films. Perhaps it’s the idea of an ordinary Joe such as themselves literally fighting to rise above their humble beginnings and prove that they are worth more than the image that their society has bestowed upon them. Titles such as On the Waterfront, Rocky, and The Fighter have shown that such stories of strength and determination always resonate with the American public, regardless of era or decade.
This past Friday saw Antoine Fuqua’s Southpaw become the latest entry into the well-worn, yet beloved genre. The story opens on boxing golden boy Billy Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal), a fighter from Hell’s Kitchen whose rise to fame has been nothing short of meteoric. With a career carefully overseen by his tough as nails wife Maureen (Rachel McAdams) and manager Jordan (50 Cent), Billy’s life of wealth and fulfillment is set.
However, when a tragic accident cuts Maureen’s life short, Billy unravels, losing his career, his money, and his young daughter Leila (Oona Laurence).With no options left, Billy enlists the help of a trainer named Tick Wills (Forest Whitaker) to help him get his life back on track, deal with his grief, and regain custody of Leila.
By now, its become virtually impossible to make a boxing movie and NOT include at least a few of the tropes that have made the genre what it is today. Southpaw is proof positive of that. The training montages, the sharing of past recollections between trainer and fighter, the moments of tragedy which puts everything into perspective for the fighter and big match at the film’s end, which usually sees the film’s hero finally triumph, are all present and accounted for in Southpaw.
Despite these moments, Southpaw’s take on the boxing world feels fresh.
While most films of the genre focus on a fighter’s struggle to get to the top, Southpaw instead follows its main character’s fall to the bottom. Opening with Billy’s life of endless adoration, lavish home, and hard-won privilege, it becomes painful and fascinating to watch it all be taken away from him. To see a fighter be driven back down to the very life he worked so hard to escape and what such a fall does to his mentality, and finally, how he uses it to muster the will to rise above it, yet again, is a side of the boxing world so rarely seen on film.
How many people “make it” in this world only to fall back down again? Anyone in such a situation will surely say that the climb the second time around can be harder the first. Billy’s second climb is fraught with every kind of physical and emotional roadblock there is. Yet, there’s also something winning about Billy rediscovering his passion for fighting and using it as the strength he needs to win back his daughter and himself.
For any boxing movie to work, there needs to be a high caliber of acting, and thankfully, Southpaw’s cast all bring it.
Whitaker once again proves he’s one of the most quietly intense actors around by playing a man who is as tough as nails, yet will dole out tough love to those he feels deserve it. One scene with Gyllenhaal near the film’s end is near tear-inducing.
Meanwhile, McAdams once again gives another stellar piece of acting as Billy’s wife. Not to be mistaken for arm candy, McAdams plays Maureen as Billy’s partner with a tenderness and a ferocity at both sides. The actress is only on screen for about 20 minutes, yet her command of those scenes is strong enough to long for more time with such a fierce and loving woman.
By now Gyllenhaal has proven that he’ll go to the greatest of lengths to bring whatever character he’s playing to life. Maybe its because Lou from Nightcrawler is still fresh in my mind, but for me, something about Gyllenhaal’s work didn’t fully register. Don’t get me wrong, the effort by the actor is fantastic. He has figured out the character and nails him. Yet there’s something to suggest that Gyllenhaal is trying too hard to disappear here a la Daniel Day Lewis.
Since directing Michelle Pfeiffer in Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise video back in the 90s, the director’s take on the grittiness of urban life has been his directorial calling card. Very few can capture the rawness of such worlds the way he can. Maureen’s death for instance forgoes any Hollywood conventions in favor of a scene both difficult and compelling to watch. In Southpaw Fuqua makes even the beautiful look a bit tainted with a real-life shadow that is inescapable.
Yes, its got those moments you know are coming, but with great acting, a real life sheen and a look at the fighter who had to fall in order to get back up again, Southpaw proves its got much more to offer than just a collection of punches and stereotypes.
