Review: Southpaw

The Antoine Fuqua-directed boxing drama Southpaw is penned by Kurt Sutter, the creator of the Shakespearean motorcycle melodrama Sons of Anarchy. Sutter deals in extremes, in the shock and awe of viscera juxtaposed with infinite tenderness. The early rounds of Southpaw bear this out: light-heavyweight champion Billy Hope's (Jake Gyllenhaal) defense of his title is book-ended by scenes with his wife Maureen (Rachel McAdams), in whose presence he finds comfort, support, and protection.

Last we saw Gyllenhaal, he was gaunt and bug-eyed and sniffing for the scent of blood in the air as the parasitic titular Nightcrawler. In Southpaw, Gyllenhaal is a raging bull, muscles aggressively bulged and sheened with blood and sweat, whose plan of attack in the ring is to absorb an extraordinary amount of punishment from his opponent before unleashing his fists of fury. His manager Jordan Mains (Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson) wants to follow up Billy's victory with a lucrative contract for a three-fight deal, but Maureen nixes it. Billy's been taking too many blows, his left eye is barely hanging on, and he slurs and shuffles as if his synapses were firing a beat later than scheduled. He needs a break before a serious injury could leave him incapacitated. What kind of a father would he be for their 11-year-old daughter Leila (a very good Oona Laurence, who bears a striking resemblance to McAdams)?

McAdams may appear to have a straightforward role, but she is a formidable actress, registering so strongly that when Maureen dies as a result of a brawl between Billy and the trash-talking Miguel (Miguel Gomez), a young gun who wants a chance at Billy's title, her absence all but cripples the film and one realises too late what a commanding portrait of a street smart woman and a fiercely loving wife and mother McAdams has created.

From that point forward, it falls on Gyllenhaal to disguise the fact that the rest of Southpaw is essentially in a flatlined state. Maureen's death triggers Billy's self-destructiveness which, in turn, results in his suspension from the ring, his bankruptcy, the repossession of his mansion, and Leila being placed in the care of family services. Billy must now prove to the court that he is clean and sober and responsible enough to win back custody of his daughter. To that end, he agrees to be a lowly janitor at a local boxing gym in exchange for being trained by the gym's owner Tick Willis (Forest Whitaker).

Whitaker is a fine performer and he and Gyllenhaal share a nice push-and-pull dynamic as Tick teaches Billy to view boxing as a chess game rather than a punch-now-ask-questions-later slugfest, but the filmmakers would have better served the film by jettisoning this section altogether. There's nothing wrong about following the usual arc of the boxing genre, but Billy's road to redemption feels strained and unnecessary. (To be honest, given Sutter's penchant for ugly tribulations, it's surprising Billy didn't end up gang-raped in the shower of a maximum security prison.) Part of the problem may be the long shadow cast by Southpaw's dynamic first half, which provides a glimpse at the behind-the-scenes machinations that have everything to do with the money and very little with the men who put their bodies on the line in the ring.

Fuqua, a former boxer himself, stirs up all sorts of razzmatazz to plunge viewers in the bowels of the action. Yes, the boxing scenes possess a primal strength and undeniable intensity. Yet the brutality is nothing without a sturdy narrative. Every battle should be representative of the overall tale at hand. Many may accuse the Rocky films of predictable and simplistic hokiness, but Sylvester Stallone knew how to coalesce the narrative in those showdowns. Billy's climactic bout with Miguel is meant to be both his salvation and a means of avenging Maureen's death, but one never genuinely receives that impression despite the accompanying chatter from the ringside commentators.

Southpaw

Directed by: Antoine Fuqua

Written by: Kurt Sutter

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rachel McAdams, Forest Whitaker, Naomie Harris, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Oona Laurence, Miguel Gomez, Beau Knapp