As heavy-handed as the titular punch

Rating: 5/10 (29 August 2015)

If Southpaw was more heavy handed, Jake Gyllenhaal would be in the cinemas delivering the title punch to the face of every member of the audience. An amalgamation of pretty much every boxing cliché ever, its not as emotionally powerful as Million Dollar Baby, not as well acted as Raging Bull, and doesn't hit the family angel as well as The Fighter. Even Grudge Match was as little bit of fun.
Jake Gyllenhaal is beefed up and intense as Billy Hope. There's a lot of Sylvester Stallone punch-drunk mumbling and a lot of Robert DeNiro deranged intensity, but Hope is such a generic character that not even the brilliant Gyllenhaal could make him an iconic or even a memorable character. He's such a brutal, aggressive guy that you have to wonder what his wife and daughter see in him. Rachel McAdams is an endearing character, but I didn't buy for a second that she was from the same rough upbringing as him.
After tragedy strikes (as ruined in the trailer - really wonder the logic there, ruining the one twist in probably the most done-to-death storyline in film history), Billy links up with Tick (Forest Whitaker, playing a shameless hybrid of Morgan Freeman's and Clint Eastwood's characters from Million Dollar Baby). Despite being a four-time champion, Billy has to learn the basics of boxing again (because then how would we be able to pad the movie with boxing montages?) Billy is also trying desperately to reconnect with his daughter, who loves or hates him as required by the script. The drama is so heavy, particularly in Tick-Billy conversations or Billy's family problem scenes, that I found myself trying not to giggle.
There's still a sense of triumph in watching Billy succeed and get his daughter back, and I enjoyed elements of the film's boxing story and how it reflected on Hope's personality. But its still generic, heavy-handed and at times a bit boring, and that's not what I want in a movie.