Disappointment to Fighters; Plays on Stereotypical, Hyper-Aggressive Male Boxers; Not a Credible Story

Rating: 5/10 (25 July 2015)

As a previous fighter, this movie is a disappointment. The movie stereotypes boxers as hyper-aggressive characters who need vice and aggressive behavior to handle the short comings thrown their way. Gyllenhaal's performance was pretty impressive in contrast to his previous roles, however it does not save the movie from its bad writing and directing. Although some of the boxing sequences aren't bad, some of them are awful and some are impressive, good fight sequences don't make a story great, and for that matter, a movie.
The movie just doesn't have a very credible story, as Billy Hope accepts fights as early as 4 weeks away from one another, not nearly enough time to actually prepare for a new opponent. His wife takes on the "momma knows best role" as she makes the majority of decisions for him and his family, including their decision for Him to stop fighting, and when she is accidentally shot, Hopes life spirals out of control. After engaging in a spree of self- destructive behavior, CPS takes custody of his child until he can prove that he is a responsible adult. Normally, this would imply that the movie should be about the Hero overcoming and conquering himself and his aggressive habits. He is instructed to go to Anger Management classes, which are not present in the film, and gets suspended from professional boxing after head-butting a referee, after his corner throws the towel in for a fight.
After losing his luxurious lifestyle from not having the cash to pay for his bills, he finds a new gym that is ran by Tick Wills (Forest Whitaker) so that he may teach young men how to box in hopes that it will lead them to grow up and become responsible men. Billy Hope cleans the gym at night for a job and trains with Tick in the mornings so that he can improve his image and possibly get a few side fights. After fighting for a charity event, Hope's agent (50 cent) finds him yet again pressuring him to get back into the ring, that he can get his suspension lifted and makes a $30 million offer to fight Miguel Escobar only 6 weeks away, a disgustingly short amount of time away to prepare for a fight. Understandably, these quick fights are supposed to represent the greed of his Agent making money, but fights like this at the professional level, at the championship level do not happen this quickly, ever.
Billy Hope takes the offer and continues to train with Tick Wills, but for this upcoming fight, it's back to fundamentals. During a montage with Eminem in the background, Billy Hope is working on basic things like stance, bobbing and weaving, blocking punches, blocking punches with your shoulder and other very basic things like that you couldn't have previously won a championship without, that apparently Billy Hope did. Meanwhile, Miguel Escobar is doing hardcore ab-workouts, and going hard on a double-ended bag, things that real professionals work on, also things that you couldn't otherwise do at that speed, without previously working on basic things like Billy is currently working on. Billy also works on boxing Southpaw upon Ticks suggestion.
Night of the fight, Billy and Miguel go at it, it is a very close one, and of course Billy Hope is hit with a low blow and whenever Miguel can't win the round, he mentions something to Billy about his wife which causes him to get very angry. Round 12 comes around and after a long round Billy connects and then connects again with a left handed uppercut.
The movie shouldn't be named "Southpaw" just on the premise that the winning punch was left handed. I really thought I was coming in to see a really awesome Southpaw performance out of Jake Gyllenhal, as those fighters give a different dynamic to a fight; Southpaws screw everybody up, even other Southpaw fighters, because everyone is used to fighting right-handed fighters. I give this movie a 5 because it plays on stereotypically, hyper-aggressive male behavior in boxers, and because the story just wasn't very credible. Impressive fight- sequences don't save a movie from the use of too many melodramatic scenes of one on one dialogue.