Stick in the Mud

Rating: 4/10 (27 July 2015)

Southpaw is a pretty standard sports movie. Even more specific, it's a pretty standard redemption story. It focuses on a successful boxer living the seemingly perfect life but also taken over by pride until life takes most of his glory away. It could work as a really powerful drama about a man lifting himself up after a number of tragedies that happen too instantly. While the movie does evidently captures the brutality of Hope's harsh situation, the story follows an unimpressively conventional path. Every transition of event feels awkward, rushed or unnatural. Jake Gyllenhaal's performance helps keeping the movie's strength, but it's just isn't enough to surpass the film's blandness.
The movie never apparently fails at portraying the ugliest side of what the main character is going through, we can see the pain and misfortune to how his career and life fall apart. But the trouble here has to do with the narrative. Much of the characters aren't given much development and they often exist as a plot device, if they aren't then they're defined by clichéd characterization and dialogue. Each moment of the struggle, mostly at the second act, isn't really as meaty as it should be. These scenes just pass through, like they're resolved instantly, hardly felt like it earned something or at least overwhelmingly for the story. The movie does eventually pay off at the climactic boxing match, but the build up for it never seems rewarding.
If anything else, the movie does understand the atmosphere, it's filled with bleakness, covered with dirt, blood and sweat; literally and metaphorically (if I know what I'm talking about.) If the storyline can't get past by its conventional rhythms then the movie at least sets the tone perfectly. It is more watchable when the character is in the ring, it is shot like it's an actual match, while the camera does try to be gimmicky with the POVs, but I digress, it's quite more interesting when we see more fighting in this film instead. The real merit that brought serious commitment to this film is definitely nothing more than Jake Gyllenhaal. You can see the performance carry the character's pain through the journey.
Southpaw's ultimate contrivance is what keeps itself from being engaging. Though Jake Gyllenhaal did try to make a character who doesn't have a lot of depth work, it's still not enough to make it all seem worth it. The story can be great, there is some interesting aspects that could deliver a stronger theme, but the movie is unable to make every step of the plot feel authentic and makes the characters as generic as possible; leading to an entertaining, yet unsatisfying climax. There is a lot of wasted potentials in the end.