Directed by:
Antoine FuquaScreenplay:
Kurt SutterCinematography:
Mauro FioreComposer:
James HornerCast:
Jake Gyllenhaal, Forest Whitaker, Naomie Harris, 50 Cent, Oona Laurence, Skylan Brooks, Beau Knapp, Rachel McAdams, Victor Ortiz, Miguel Gomez, Dominic Colón (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
Reigning light-heavyweight boxing champion Billy 'The Great' Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal) has a loving wife (Rachel McAdams) and child and a promising career ahead of him. However, Billy finds himself in danger of losing all of that after tragedy strikes and he is declared unfit to look after his young daughter Leila (Oona Laurence). Having hit rock-bottom, Billy desperately tries to regain control of his life and win back custody of his little girl with the help of boxing trainer Titus 'Tick' Wills (Forest Whitaker). (Entertainment in Video)
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Reviews (12)
The narrative structure is a bit inconsistent, as after a strangely rushed and overstuffed first half, the story basically "starts from scratch". Anyway, with the arrival of Forest Whitaker on the scene, Southpaw spills into its better half. It's not necessarily his acting (he's playing his standard), rather that he has an extremely audience-rewarding "mentor" role here. Perhaps the only thing worth mentioning from the first half of the film is the opening fight, which is beautifully and evocatively shot. Everything else in the first hour felt too superficial and overwrought. The second half is a lot more believable and elevates the final impression to slightly above average.
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In his screenwriting debut, Kurt Sutter knocks out originality in the first round. (Everything important is actually revealed in the opening credits, based on which it isn’t hard to figure out that Whitaker will play a more important role than Rachel McAdams, so you end up just waiting for him to appear on the scene and wondering whether he will actually play the role that logically suits him.) The initial plot twist, which is given away in the trailer, is followed by a textbook story of redemption and second chances. The protagonist must first sink to the bottom in order to get back on his feet, find his inner balance and take on the antagonist. Partial successes in the sports storyline are dampened by failures in the relationship storyline (the estranged daughter) so that the protagonist still has something to contend with and the viewer is still “hooked”. Southpaw is different from the first Rocky only in that the rise of the boxer, who doesn’t fight for the heart of his beloved, but for his daughter’s trust, begins after he goes from riches to rags. It is not clear whether Sutter, who comes from a poor family, intended to say that real boxers don’t fight for fame, but for the love of the sport. Billy obviously does not plan to find contentment in training boys from the poor side of town for the rest of his life. The film is equally uncritical with respect to the self-destructive nature of fighting sports (not only in comparison with Raging Bull and the recent Foxcatcher). Thanks to the journalistically intrusive camerawork and Jake Gyllenhaal’s naturalistic acting, the matches are unpleasantly violent, but they mainly result in catharsis rather than pain. Or once a fighter, always a fighter. I fully understand and recognise the existence of such self-actualising and self-affirming melodramas, especially when they aren’t offensively stupid and there isn’t much to fault them for with respect to craftsmanship and narrative, but I also wonder what good another variation on the same theme and the same formula is in the long-term perspective other than to garner Oscar nominations for a few actors. Particularly in the case of the aloof Whitaker, who is starting to play similar personifications of old age and wisdom as Clint Eastwood (whose Million Dollar Baby offers a much less gratuitous plot twist), it wouldn’t bother me if it went no further than a nomination. Gyllenhaal sometimes tries too hard for an award. Just like the Southpaw itself. 60%
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Why does everybody give Southpaw three stars? Because it’s fine in terms of craftsmanship, it has quite a few emotionally tense moments, the ring scenes are very naturalistic thanks to the contact camerawork, and the two outstanding actors, Jake Gyllenhaal and Forest Whitaker, wring their talents to the last drop of sweat and blood. But why only three stars? Because nothing happens that we wouldn’t have expected in advance today (the only seemingly surprising twist is revealed in the distributor's blurb). After all, "fine in terms of craftsmanship" today is any project with such budget and cast, and then if we were to put this film’s level of emotion on some imaginary ring facing Warrior, the mentally unstable champion Billy Hope, his cliché-ridden sporting and moral reboot, and the routine Uncle Fugua would all walk away ignominiously defeated by a painful knockout. Good ol’ three stars… ;)
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The essential driving force of the sports drama Southpaw is clearly Jake Gyllenhaal, without whose excellent performance it would be just a rather mediocre movie from a boxing environment with a very predictable plot. Who else caught my eye was the charismatic Forest Whitaker, who was a very decent support for Jake. (65%)
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Simply said, when the actor and director are on completely different level in terms of quality. While Gyllenhaal’s performance is brilliant and he is even "aiming for Oscar", Fuqua only makes just another everyday consumer version of the thousand-times-seen boxing B-movie melodrama, in which perhaps all genre clichés are present; just often in a non-functional style. It also strangely tends to fade away, because it starts with by far the best scene and then it only gets worse especially after falling to the bottom, when the true values are revealed and the after getting at its height again. It's kind of sad when the opening match has a driving force, energy and charge and the final one has nothing. It holds together only thanks to Gyllenhaal’s performance, but as I mentioned, his excellent performance seems almost inappropriate in this movie.
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