Southpaw

Southpaw is a decent boxing film that makes you appreciate the good ones even more.

It’s a story we all know by heart in one form or another: Billy Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal) is an undefeated boxing champion on top of the world looking down with his beautiful wife (Rachel McAdams) and daughter (Oona Laurence) in his corner. Being the undisputed champion of the world, Billy is called out by rival boxer Miguel “Magic” Escobar (Miguel Gomez) to set up a match between the two to decide who truly is the best of the best. Predictably, Billy’s wife is against it, claiming that even though Billy wins every bout, he’s recently been getting pretty banged up in the ring before he pulls off a win so, like any loving wife would do, she suggests that he stop fighting before things get worse. Later on, during a gala dinner speech, Escobar calls out Billy yet again, this time bringing his wife into his trash talk. One thing leads to another and before we know it, Billy is all over Escobar leading to an all out brawl between their two crews and ending with Billy’s wife being accidentally shot in the scuffle and killed (all of which is in the trailer for whatever reason). The fallout results in Billy losing his daughter, money, reputation and himself, and as the walls start closing in Billy does his best to get back in the ring and take it all back.

Southpaw is an odd beast of a film. Originally the script called for Eminem (yes the rapper) in the starring role, using his personal struggles and angry personality as the main material for the character of Billy Hope. It was to be a thinly veiled look at Slim’s life (ala 8 Mile) but with a boxing twist. After deciding to focus more on his music (Em remains involved producing the films soundtrack) the role was eventually given to Gyllenhaal. Being a superb actor, the filmmakers really couldn’t have chosen a better lead but there’s one thing that still bugged me about the whole thing: Gyllenhaal is pretty much acting on two fronts. One, obviously acting as the rags-to-riches boxing champ Billy Hope, and two, acting as Eminem’s version of that character.

Let me explain. Due to the fact that this script was written with Eminem in mind, I can’t help but see him in Gyllenhaal’s performance and it detracts from the experience a bit. Granted, I’m in the minority knowing all of these behind the scenes shenanigans, but I still couldn’t shake the feeling that everyone involved, while trying to stay true to the original plan, never truly let Gyllenhaal do his thing the entire way through. He has some really good stuff to work with in the film, don’t get me wrong, but every few scenes I get pulled out of the story thinking, “Yup, that’s there cuz Eminem was supposed to be in the role.” It’s honestly nitpicky of me but a nitpick nonetheless.

On the flipside, most of the cast does well with the material at hand. Forest Whitaker excels as Billy’s new trainer once Billy decides that the only way to redeem himself, get his daughter back and free himself from his demons once and for all, is to take on Escobar in a winner take all match. Whitaker puts a welcome spin on the typical hard-ass trainer with some well-placed emotional beats that really sells his character. McAdams, with the limited screen time she does have, plays the love between her and her husband so perfectly that I actually imagined myself losing someone that I care about that deeply and it kind of made me freak a bit. Billy’s downward spiral after her death, while a little intense, made complete sense to me seeing how much the two cared for each other. It really hits home what losing someone that close to you can do to a person. Billy’s daughter, relative newcomer Oona Laurence, shows some big promise from such a young performer. While she gets some of the most dramatic and unnecessarily heartstring pulling lines, she plays off of Gyllenhaal nicely and adds to the struggle that both characters face.

While some good stuff comes from their father daughter interaction, a lot of it just feels like too much for its own good. This film is emotional, extremely so, and you will get hit in the feels quite often, but most of that emotion comes from some forced cliché’s that the genre is known for as well as some silly overly dramatic lines of dialogue that once delivered, kind of made me feel like they were kicking us while we were already down for the count. It’s just that there’s so much that goes wrong for Billy before they inevitably go right that you kind of just sit back and wonder when enough is enough.

The film is chock full of the rise and fall mentality of any good comeback film while simultaneously going for the heart at every turn. You’ll feel what the filmmakers want you to feel and when the film finally shifts its focus to the actual boxing scenes, it’s a welcome change. I don’t know how they did some of these fights, but they are brutal and bloody and this is where Gyllenhaal really shines. The rage and anger and newfound discipline of everything that Billy has gone through compounds and unleashes itself in the final fight scene and believe me, when you see Gyllenhaal’s in action, you know nothing will stop him from taking back his life. There’s a great shot towards the end of the last fight with an almost broken Billy sits exhausted in his corner. The camera moves forward and we see the struggle, the motivation and the determination in his eyes as he raises himself up to go it again. That shot alone pretty much sums up the film in a nutshell.

While decently handled all around, it’s the genre cliché’s and overly dramatic punches in the feels that keep this film from reaching Rocky heights. On top of being a fellow fictional story, it’s a shame the filmmakers didn’t stray from the mold when they were in no way held back by any true-life story. Lots of potential but a little disappointed at how safe everything was played.