Southpaw, boxing that packs little punch

Rating: 6/10 (2 August 2015)

'Southpaw' follows the undefeated Billy Hope, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, on his road to redemption both both in and outside of the ring. The narrative also arcs around Hope's personal life between his daughter Leila (Oona Laurence) and wife (Rachel Mcadams.) This is another physical demanding role for Gyllenhaal in comparison to my favourite performance of his in last years thriller 'Nightcrawler.' Where it falls short of the brilliance of 'Nightcrawler' is its overall script. It is riddled with predictability, although it 's attempts to shun this aren't unnoticed.
By definition, the boxing drama Southpaw is a good boxing movie. Is it a superb film all around? No, I fail to see how this will get a Best-Picture nomination. The falling grace to the drama is Gyllenhaal's overall performance. Year on year he simply becomes a different person and 'Southpaw' is no exception. His emotional scenes with his equally talented daughter are believable, gaining instant catharsis. Where Gyllenhaal is at his bitter best is inside the ring. From the offset the weight gain is noticed and needed for his performance to be as raw as Hope's ruthless characteristics. Hope felt he had to be hit repeatedly to be feel his most comfortable in the ring (reminiscent of 'Raging Bull'). The cinematography for both the major boxing scenes of the start and the final scene are probably the most gripping parts of the scenes. Just before the film was announced it was revealed that the camera crew were utilising HBO cameramen to make the fights feel both raw and real. Moreover from the central performance, Forest Whitaker's best performance in years as Hope's coach-'Tick.' It's also noteworthy that 50 cents performance was mediocre at best. It felt that anyone could of easily played his role.
Where the film falls from grace is its chiches, despite some being done correctly. 'Southpaw' follows Billy's typical roles (The Rise, Fall, Pity and Revenge Trip.) There's point when I was nodding my head the amount of times I have seen this scenes before. The one I distinctly remember is the montage training scene, utilising Eminem's soundtrack it was hard for me to still feel bitter when I was still anxious towards Hope's journey.
The main problem that 'Southpaw' left itself was gained from the offset. The trailer revealed a major reveal that really did not need to be shown to its audience. I felt I was just waiting for this scene to occur so I could probably watch the felt with a sense of a apprehensiveness. It's hard to downgrade the film based on something that meanwhile it is hard to forget.