Ace acting

Rating: 10/10 (10 October 2015)

I walked into a theatre, expecting a crappy, clichéd boxing movie... Basically a poor man's Rocky, and I must say, I left pleasantly surprised.
I'll be the first to admit, he story is not an original one, however, Jake Gyllenhaal's acting was absolutely incredible.... And I mean, how about the body transformation, huh?

spoilers begin -

Now excuse me for being a little dark, but my favorite scene was the death of his lovely wife Maureen, played by the incredibly talented and beautiful Rachel McAdams. The scene is so well acted, both McAdams and Gyllenhaal giving it their all, and the people around them are just a blur. I was worried there would be the stereotypical "NOOOOOOOOO!" Followed by the whole film after that being all about vengeance, but, again, I was pleasantly surprised.
Not your typical redemption movie, and takes you on a beautiful, emotional journey which is quite dark and poetic.
The only real downer in the movie was 50cent, which is no surprise, I'm sure, the man is stone faced and boring, I would definitely not have cast him in this. Oona Lawrence definitely has potential and I'm sure will grow into her little actress shoes soon enough, but sometimes her over acted little expressions just killed me, but as I said, she definitely will be great when she's older.