Not bad

Rating: 7/10 (1 January 2016)

Billy Hope (Gyllenhaal) is the Light Heavyweight Champion of the World. In a bizarre accident his wife Maureen (McAdams) is killed. He has another fight and cannot concentrate and loses. Then he is told by financial advisers that he is out of money. All now is lost: his house, cars etc and also his daughter, 8-year old Leila (Oona Laurance), now must go into Family Protection Services. He is devastated but goes on a path of self-destruction. . He must find a way to get back to doing what he loves and get his daughter back. He meets Tick Willis (Whitaker) who reluctantly agrees to train him.
Just what we need: another fight movie that we know is going to be very sad. And that is just what we have now and I was prepared not to like this movie. However, the pull for me turned out to be the relationship between Billy and daughter Leila. Yes, we see Billy train hard to get back and he does a good job of that, but the strained relationship with Leila tugs at our heart strings.
To be fair Gyllenhaal as Billy has fully invested himself in here with both the training and getting his daughter back. Some say an Oscar is in his future. The fight scenes are brutal and looked more than real, but the visits to Family Services to get estranged Leila back is uppermost in his mind. Ours too.
If you watch keep a box of Kleenex handy. There will be moments
(what's wrong, you now seem to like the movie?) Here's the thing: Billy's wife was his manager and she would not have let their finances get so low. This part of the movie when he is told he is broke came too quickly in a very short period of time as the movie just opened. Just seemed too contrived.
When Tick Willis comes on the scene I thought maybe that he would convince Billy to sue his financial advisors for stealing from him, but that didn't happen. Instead Tick just trained Billy and actually taught him how to box and not act like a street thug in the ring.
Tick convinces Billy to hit southpaw, but this looked awkward with Billy hunching up his left shoulder to protect his left side and eye. Billy didn't look like a left hander in the ring. There didn't seem to be any room for Billy to land a knockout punch with his left hand. Like I said: awkward. Actually, the title should have been Redemption or Hope's Redemption.
One more thing. When a character like Tick, the Trainer, wants to give hushed advice to his boxer, the Director should remember there is an audience that needs to hear this advice. Often Tick's whispers couldn't be understood.
So .. not bad, but the relationship with the daughter was the pull for me, the fights were okay and brutal. This is not the blockbuster some have made it out to be. And don't forget, we need to get past CREED. Ha! (7/10)
Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: Yes.