Like a title fight with the usual trappings — two modern gladiators with tats across sinewy backs, HBO announcer Jim Lampley, corner men trying to stanch bleeding, ring girls in teeny bikinis — the story of “Southpaw” seems very familiar.
What distinguishes it, however, are Jake Gyllenhaal as light heavyweight champion Billy Hope and (arriving nearly an hour into the picture) Forest Whitaker as Tick Willis, a retired fighter who spends his days training amateurs.
Coming on the heels of Mr. Gyllenhaal’s haunted, hungry videographer in “Nightcrawler” and before his turn as a long-haired mountain climber in “Everest,” it’s another click of the reel Rubik’s cube that shows his versatility and skill that often have played second fiddle to his good looks. Mr. Whitaker? His Oscar-winning turn in “The Last King of Scotland” speaks for itself amid a 33-year career.
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Forest Whitaker, Rachel McAdams, Oona Laurence.
Rating: R for language throughout, and some violence.
Providing his usual assured direction is Antoine Fuqua, who blends shots of New York, Las Vegas, Pittsburgh and Indiana, Pa., to create a seamless world of a champ who falls from giving out Cartier watches to guests like party favors to an empty apartment accurately described as “300 square feet of nothing.”
“Southpaw” opens with Billy Hope being the embodiment of his name. A survivor of an orphanage in Hell’s Kitchen, he is now an undefeated boxer, husband to a loving woman (Rachel McAdams) who looks out for his personal and professional welfare, and father to their doting daughter (the excellent Oona Laurence), age 10.
But a taunt from another fighter leads to a melee and errant bullet. In short order, Billy loses members of his family, his friend and manager (Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson), his mansion, cars, fortune and title.
If he has any chance of putting his shattered life back together, Billy will have to start over with the help of Tick, a complicated character who is well aware of the plight that led to the newspaper headline: “The Great White Dope — Hope Loses Everything.”
Billy is not an eloquent character; he often speaks in a fumbling manner like a punch-drunk boxer who lacks much formal education. But the movie roils with emotion, especially on the part of Billy who for so long has been driven by rage on and off the canvas. After all, he says, “I never really had any plans.” His wife made the plans and she and their daughter watched over Billy, whose parenting skills and ability to think differently inside and outside the ring are put to the test.
“Southpaw,” originally intended for Eminem who bowed out to finish an album but whose single “Phenomenal” appears, is notable for its boxing scenes, Pittsburgh’s ability to cheat for New York, and the work of composer James Horner who died June 22 in a plane crash.
Mr. Fuqua, himself no stranger to sparring and boxing, takes the camera into the ring where it feels as though the audience is dodging fists and flying blood, and trying to stagger back into the ropes. The leading man may not be hanging off the side of a moving Airbus like Tom Cruise for the next “Mission: Impossible,” but Mr. Gyllenhaal is meting out the punishing punches and taking them, in keeping with the tattoo etched across his back. “Fear No Man,” it proclaims.
A Pittsburgh native, Mr. Fuqua expertly cuts between overviews of New York and such Western Pennsylvania locations as the Omni William Penn Hotel (its beautiful ballroom has gotten more screen time than some SAG members), IUP’s Kovalchick Convention and Athletic Complex, The Priory on the North Side, Allegheny Cemetery, the exterior of the former Saks Fifth Avenue Downtown, a private estate in O’Hara along with temporarily graffiti-stained buildings in Carrick and Brentwood.
“Southpaw,” written by Kurt Sutter (“Sons of Anarchy”), is about a man fighting for his life in every sense of that phrase. He has to take near-fatal or bruising body blows, roll with the punches, and learn to use his head for something other than a target. It may not be the most original of stories but it is told with energy, heart and a spirit of redemption and resilience.
Movie editor Barbara Vancheri: bvancheri@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1632. Read her blog: www.post-gazette.com/madaboutmovies.
First Published: July 24, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
