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EDITOR'S PICK
'Southpaw'
- Heavyweight on performance
Rating:
***
'Southpaw' is a classic boxing drama of fall and redemption. It's an
inspirational tale of a damaged champ's fight in and out of the boxing ring,
where he struggles to outgrow his self-destructive anger in order to regain all
that he has lost.
It's the story of light heavyweight boxing champion Billy Hope. After winning a
tough and ruthless fight, he is coaxed by his wife Maureen to announce his
retirement so that they can have a peaceful family life with their young
daughter, Leila. Billy agrees much against the wishes of his manager Jordan
Mains.
So with his entourage that includes his manager and wife, Billy makes the
announcement of his retirement at a press conference. During his speech, Billy
is taunted by a young boorish boxer, Miguel 'Magic' Escobar who hoped to
challenge him in the ring.
After the conference, Escobar continues with his tirade. Much against Maureen's
wishes, Billy succumbs to Escobar's taunts and reacts harshly, by grappling him.
This leads to a tragedy that has a domino effect on Billy's personal and
professional life.
While Billy's tale is engrossing, Kurt Sutter's screenplay, definitely seems
old-fashioned and one-dimensional, where every scene is constructed to show
Billy suffering. It leads on to a sadistic pleasure of digging into Billy's grim
life with aplomb. The scenes exhibiting the calamities in Billy's life seem
unending.
There is no relief, no comic moments or any effort to alter the tone from
grimness except at the end. Also, the screenplay misses out on some key scenes
that would help in making Billy a more convincing character.
'Southpaw' belongs to Jake Gyllenhaal. A far cry from his previous character in
'Nightcrawler', a beefed-up Jake Gyllenhaal has physically and mentally
transformed himself to slip into Billy Hope's shoes.
With his posture, gait, speech, bruised face and flexing muscles, he portrays
the character's emotional anguish in every scene -- be it in the boxing arena or
when he is pining for his daughter.
He is aptly supported by the entire cast, especially Rachel McAdams as his wife
Maureen, Oona Laurence as his daughter Leila, Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson as his
ingratiating business manager Jordan Mains, Miguel Gomez as the boxer Escobar,
Naomie Harris as Angela Rivera the member of the Child Protective Services under
whose care Leila is entrusted and Forest Whitaker as Tate Wills, the owner of a
gym and his trainer when he is down and out.
On the technical front, the film has good production values. Production designer
Derek R. Hill's sets are brilliant and they are realistically captured by Mauro
Fiore's dramatic low-key cinematography. With an unsteady camera, Mauro captures
the intense subject in tight close-up frames that highlight only the significant
parts of the faces and the sets. This, when used judiciously is brilliant, but
the extensive use of this technique overeggs the pudding.
The well-executed boxing scenes are pumped up with emotional and brilliantly
calibrated score by James Horner that ranges from moody to rap.
And at the end of it, if you wonder, why the film is titled 'Southpaw'. Well,
for the uninitiated, Southpaw is term used for the stance of a left-handed
boxer, which is very evident in Hope's case in the last fight sequence.
The film is light on story and a heavyweight on performance. Watch it for Jake
Gyllenhaal's histrionics.