Is this moving really about boxing?

Rating: 8/10 (17 March 2005)

I must begin by confessing that I hate boxing. So I'll make this comment notwithstanding that. Well but is this movie really about boxing? I don't think so, I mean, in my opinion boxing is here a mere pretext to tell a story about love, friendship, dedication, will strength and fighting spirit for an aim. The main character is a boxer by chance as she could be a soccer player, a singer, a dancer or a pianist. And this is also the story of a false hard hearted guy who loses a daughter and meets another to whom he can give his fatherly love and get it returned. This movie is made with a, shall we say, atrocious realism both visual and psychological and the acting performers do their best to express it. The outcome, though caused by a fortuitous (or not?) fact, inserts itself totally in the atmosphere created by the two main characters (or three if we consider that the old ex-boxer is also a catalyst of the whole process of events, playing a fundamental part in the consciousness of the other two and acting somehow like their counterpoint). I think we are perhaps in presence of one of the best 2004 movies if not the best one.