SOUTHPAW
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Cert: 15, 124 mins
Writer Kurt Sutter and director Antoine Fuqua bring us Southpaw, a boxing drama which is raw and emotionally powerful material. It’s also admirably redemptive, living up to its tag-line, ‘Believe in Hope’.
The story concerns the boxer Billy Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal), who has won multiple world lightweight championship titles by his strategy of taking enormous punishment before rebounding for an eventual victory. This is an approach which concerns his caring wife, Maureen (Rachel McAdams).
Friend in need
After a tragic accident, Billy reacts in a self-destructive way, resulting in his daughter temporarily being taken away from him until he can prove that he’s ready to look after her. With his career in ruins, the loss of his house and friends scattering, Billy turns to a new trainer, Tick Wills (Forest Whitaker) to help him rebuild his life and, hopefully, win his daughter back.
While Tick doesn’t have all the answers, he’s nevertheless able to provide some wise guidance and even grows himself along the way. At one point he reflects that God might be trying to teach him something. The film provides a great example of the power of encouragement, not in a glib way, but from a place of genuine empathy (c.f. 2 Corinthians 1.2-4).
Tick teaches Billy to defend himself against unnecessary damage, and also the value of sometimes punching with his weaker hand, or ‘southpaw’. The message of the film seems to be along the lines of: look after yourself so that you can bless others.
Southpaw is an intense emotional journey, with plenty of swearing and (mostly, but not all boxing-related) violence, but it’s so empathetic and life-affirming as to be worth watching.
