Kinda Hated it/Kinda Loved it !!

Rating: 7/10 (4 August 2015)

I walked in to view this film not knowing what to expect. I knew that it was going to be brutal, visceral, and overwhelmingly violent...and I was okay with that. After all the script was pinned by Kurt Sutter who has pretty much cornered the market on brutal, visceral, overwhelmingly violent screenplays. The movie is directed by one of my favorites, Antoine Fuqua who knows how to shoot violence. I didn't expect to have such a mixed reaction to the whole thing.
First off, there will definitely be spoilers ahead. So, fair warning, SPOILERS!!
Okay, now that we've gotten that out of the way...I'm not sure how anyone can claim they don't know what's going to happen in the movie. Did you watch the trailer? The whole movie is in the trailer. Well, let me qualify that a bit. The whole 'arc' of the movie is in the trailer. I was a bit put off by this especially since I love the director and the screenwriter. This is the Rocky film Sylvester Stallone wish he had made. Except instead of a dim-witted boxer we have a dim-witted boxer totally fueled by rage. He has to get the hell knocked out of him in order to dig deep into his rage and pound the crap out of his opponent.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays Billy Hope. Yeah, yeah, we get it. Billy is the "Great White Hope". Jake has pretty much cornered the market on the tortured, quirky, psychotic anti-hero. Forrest Whittaker is his mentor who teaches him how to get in touch with the talent beneath the rage. Billy loses everything, hits rock bottom, then comes back. Cue tears and cheers.
Now let me tell you what I love about this movie. The film is, at its heart, the story of a father's love for his daughter and what he is willing to do to get her back into his life. Billy Hope is not the brightest bulb in the box, he works in a violent profession, and his rage fuels his ability to do that. But, Billy loves his wife and daughter. He is loyal to his friends. He just puts his trust in the wrong man, his Don King style manager played by Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson.
The relationship between Billy and Leila, his daughter, is one of the things that I really like about this film. Another is his relationship with his trainer, Tick Wills. Billy could have drowned himself in drugs, he could have self-destructed. He almost does. But he digs deep, gets help and comes back.
The movie is beautifully filmed. You are not ringside. You are right in the ring feeling every punch and every blow. The soundtrack has music by Eminem, who was originally intended as the star if the movie had been a sequel to his film 8 Mile. The music is a perfect counterpoint to the action.
I don't know if I can recommend this film. I'd like to but it left me feeling a bit blah. Who knows..it will probably become a cult film.