Describing something as Golden Globe caliber is damning it with faint praise.
It also means “not Oscar worthy.” Which can be said of the punch-drunk love story “Southpaw.”
It has all the right moves and pushes the right buttons but in pedantic and melodramatic service of past fight films.
Jake Gyllenhaal is having a Matthew McConaughey year.
He was the creepily obsessive guy in last year’s “Nightcrawler” for which he WAS nominated for a Golden Globe. And he has his raging bull on here as a boxer who wins fights by taking a beating.
Gyllenhaal’s character is a world champion who plows into his opponents like a bulldozer. He is warned by his wife, played by Rachel McAdams, that this will leave him crippled in two years. But when he is provoked into a confrontation by a nemesis his downfall is faster than that.
He loses everything, including custody of his daughter (who counts his stitches after every fight) and drops to the bottom of the bird cage where he is put back together by the grizzled trainer played by Forrest Whittaker.
Director Antoine Fuqua has a vivid ringside sensibility and captures the chaotic clarity of the Las Vegas fight scene. But the story, by “Sons of Anarchy” creator Kurt Sutter, travels in the footsteps of boxing tales like “The Champ” and “Million Dollar Baby.”
Though Gyllenhaal has “Magic Mike” abs, even a win leaves him limping, bruised, stoop-shouldered and slurring his words with a “Rocky” mumble. But the full tilt character could use the nuanced bobbing and weaving Gyllenaal brought to gay cowboy he played in “Brokeback Mountain.”
The difference between the roles is the difference between being nominated for an Oscar or a Golden Globe.
**1/2 Two and one half stars
With Jake Gyllenhaal, Rachel McAdams, Forest Whitaker, Oona Laurence, 50 Cent, Naomi Harris, Sklyan Brooks, Victor Ortiz. Produced by Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, Antoine Fuqua, Alan Riche, Peter Riche, Steve Tisch. Written by Kurt Sutter. Directed by Antoine Fuqua. Approximate running time: 123 minutes. Rated R; pervasive language, violence.
Tags: Jake Gyllenhaal, Million Dollar Baby, Raging Bull, Rocky, Sons of Anarchy, Southpaw, The Champ Posted by