Jake Gyllenhaal’s latest film, Southpaw wants desperately to be the Rocky or maybe Rocky 5 for the current generation. For the most part the story of light heavyweight champ Billy Hope (Gyllenhaal) mostly works. If you saw any boxing film in the last 30 years, you’ll see some of the well-worn plot turns coming a mile away, however it’s worth stepping into the ring for all the fine performances.
I’ve always been a lover of all things Rachel McAdams and she does another nice job here, however limited and understated, as Hope’s long “suffering” wife – Maureen. It’s basically the Talia Shire role; the only thing missing is Hope yelling out “I did it Maureen!” There’s a quiet dignity here, but I never felt the chemistry between Hope and Maureen. Of course all the commentators during the matches had to use lame references to the color commentary “Is there any Hope for Billy?”
Young actress Oona Laurence gives a solid performance as Hope’s daughter Leila. This is someone we should all look out for, it’s amazing the level of maturity she brings to the role. She’s not around much in the beginning of the film, but later when things turn south and the drama gets ratcheted up you can’t help but feel for her. It was a little hard watching her deal with a very real adult situation, while her once loving father and hero basically “checks out,” while dealing with the family tragedy. Gravely voiced Forest Whitaker didn’t quite work for me as sage trainer and gym owner Tick Wills.
Hope and his family are victims of everything that happened to them, but the film portrays it all as being Hope’s fault. His rash actions led to their downfall and the people responsible for it are never shown as paying for their role in the tragedy. As a matter of fact everyone prospers – Miguel (Miguel Gomez) the chief instigator becomes the new champion and Hopes’ long time manager and supposed friend Jordan (50 Cent) just jumps to the next thing that makes money.
Director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) handles quieter moments of the film but his frenetic style does the fight choreography a disservice by having to many quick cuts and close up shots. The climatic fight between Hope and Miguel was edited so poorly that at times it was hard to tell who was punching whom, at one point during the fight it switched to a weird first person view.
Gyllenhaal gives one of the best performances of his career here. He goes through a stunning transformation for this part; it’s hard to believe it’s the same guy who was in last year’s excellent Nightcrawler. If you watch both performances back to back, it’s clear Gyllenhaal is hitting these challenging roles out of the park. I will never understand how these actors can go through such radical body changes in such a short period of time.
If you are a fan of boxing films, this by the numbers affair will satisfy, it’s well put together and features some solid performances and is worth checking out just to see Gyllenhaal.
Final Grade B