Southpaw Review: An Unrelenting and Punishing Drama Dressed Up as a Boxing Movie

In our Southpaw review it looks like Jake Gyllenhaal is on his way to an Oscar nomination in one of the most grueling and emotional film experiences in recent memory…

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

If there’s one thing ‘Sons of Anarchy’ creator and ‘Southpaw’ scribe Kurt Sutter understands and showcases better than virtually any writer in Hollywood it’s examining the excruciating pain that goes along with human suffering.

That’s in no way an insult to Sutter’s wrting — it’s actually a massive compliment.

For seven seasons, Sutter tore away at the Teller family on ‘Sons of Anarchy’, barely allowing his lead character Jax to experience much, if any joy while constantly throwing any number of emotionally tortured scenes at actor Charlie Hunnam to perform. From anger and hate to torture and loss, Hunnam is now one of the most sought after actors in movies because of what Sutter put him through on television.

The same could easily be said for what Sutter and director Antoine Fuqua got out of Jake Gyllenhaal for ‘Southpaw’, which opened in theaters on Friday.

The movie masquerades itself as a boxing biopic following a famed pugilist named Billy ‘The Great’ Hope as he pursues an undefeated career record while displaying the same defensive techniques that made ‘Irish’ Micky Ward a fan favorite and a cautionary tale simultaneously. The real heart of ‘Southpaw’ is the family drama that unfolds while Billy gets his entire world ripped away from him and the redemption he seeks to get it all back again.

Sutter certainly knows how to tug at the heart strings and ‘Southpaw’ will leave your reeling after two plus hours — the bulk of which is like a body shot that just won’t let you catch your breath.

Plot

Billy ‘The Great’ Hope is an undefeated boxing champion with the perfect rags to riches story. He grew up in a group home in Hell’s Kitchen, New York and that’s where he met his future wife Maureen (Rachel McAdams) when they were just 12 years old. The two kids survived being raised by the state and eventually made it big when Billy’s boxing career shot to the stratosphere. During that meteoric rise, Billy took just as many shots as he gave and Maureen is ready to see her husband take a nice long break from the fight game while his promoter (played by 50 Cent) just wants to soak him for the last penny while sticking his hand out and calling himself ‘family’.

Billy’s entire world is Maureen and their daughter Leila (played by Oona Laurence), but everything comes crashing down around him when a tragic accident ends with his wife dead and a husband who just doesn’t have the answers to go forward any longer.

To get his daughter back after a downward spiral lands her in the same group home he grew up in, Billy has to fight to reclaim his life and his career with help from a trainer named Tick Wills (Forest Whittaker), who brought up the only fighter who ever deserved a win over the undefeated boxing champion.

Acting

First things first let’s look past the obvious lead in the film and examine the supporting cast around Jake Gyllenhaal.

In her brief appearance as Maureen Hope, Rachel McAdams does a fine job of playing Billy’s dutiful and caring wife while showing real strength of character when it comes to defending her husband and her home. Oona Laurence shows great emotional range as Billy’s doting and then estranged daughter while 50 Cent plays a sleezebag, pimp promoter as well as anyone has done in a boxing film.

While Gyllenhaal will receive the most praise for this movie (as he should), don’t look past the powerfully subtle performance by Forest Whitaker, who is always one breath away from an Academy Award every time he steps in front of a camera.

And of course Gyllenhaal is nothing short of spectacular portraying Hope. A nearly punch drunk boxer when the film begins, Gyllenhaal has to reach down to the very depths of his soul to find the bottom where Billy stumbles after losing his wife and then the strength to climb back out of the pit again. Gyllenhaal goes from somber to rage in a split second while also dredging through an emotional hell that had to be hard to play day after day while filming this movie.

He may not win an Oscar, but Gyllenhaal gave an Oscar worthy performance and proves once again that he’s one of Hollywood’s best leading men.

Directing and Writing

Antoine Fuqua has his craft down pat after so many films, but he excels in the gritty urban dramas like ‘Training Day’ and a film like ‘Southpaw’. From the dark undertones that dim the lights during Billy’s hardest days to the bright lights and the gold belts that decorate his best, Fuqua straddles the line between misery and joy but stays mostly mired in melancholy throughout the two-hour plus movie.

The real heart of ‘Southpaw’ comes from the script written by Sutter, who grew up the son of a boxer and he’s stayed loyal to the sweet science throughout his career in Hollywood.

There have been some reviews of ‘Southpaw’ that said the movie used the same tired tropes that boxing movies have done for decades. To counter that argument, I would say those same people probably haven’t lived and breathed the fight business to understand how many tales just like those told in movies such as ‘Rocky’ or ‘Southpaw’ are commonplace in boxing.

Sutter might be one of the best writers working today who understands how to build up and tear down a lead character, whether it’s in television or movies. He also puts the boxing industry in full view of the public from the promoter pimps who only care about the bottom line to the gritty, no nonsense training that turns a challenger into a champion.

What’s Wrong with the Movie?

The biggest issue with any movie set in the boxing world is the film inevitably ends with a fight and the only mystery is whether or not the lead character will come away with a win or defeat. It’s just a fact you have to accept when you go see a sports movie of any kind really because that’s ultimately the drama that’s going to bring the film to a close.

Outside of that, ‘Southpaw’ really doesn’t feel like a traditional boxing movie as much as it does a family drama about one broken man trying to fight for his family and it just so happens that he’s a boxer.

‘Southpaw’ will end up on dozens of lists with critics pigeonholing the film as a sports movie, but really this one goes so much deeper and so much further that it almost seems unfair to put such a basic label on an otherwise great drama.

Final Verdict

‘Southpaw’ is unrelenting and unapologetic so if you can’t handle crying at least a couple of times this might not be the movie for you. But if you are a fan of real drama and examining the depths of human suffering, this is about as good as it’s going to get in 2015.

‘Southpaw’ gets five out of five on the Skolnik scale