I like boxing movies. I'm almost a sucker for them. Cinderella Man, Rocky 3, Creed, and on and on. I do like the hardworking underdog/redemption story theme, and a well-choreographed match.
And these fight sequences are okay, plus Gyllenhaal clearly got in shape for them.
BUT he SO overacts, and the character is SO obnoxious, that it just isn't that fun to watch.
Whether scripted or not, you feel like Gyllenhaal is ad-libbing a constant patter of nonsense babble in many scenes. We're supposed to care a lot that he loses his great wife, and his daughter is taken away from him. But BOTH happen because HE DOES NOT LISTEN, and he never really confronts that killing flaw.
Even in the courtroom scene, when the judge is informing him what's going to happen, Gyllenhaal (I can't feel it's the character) is mugging and clowning and yapping at his daughter across the room, clearly not taking the trial or the judge seriously -- and so, predictably, when the sentence is finished, he says "What?" Yeah, Enstein: what she said while you were acting like a dimwitted toddler.
What arc there is feels jerky and lacks credibility. He's an idiot, he's an idiot, he's an idiot...oh, okay, now he's really going to train for this fight. Well, great, so I guess everything's all fixed now. And if he can beat that other fighter, he'll be a fit father. Great.
It left me more irritated than entertained, and not in any good way.
I gave it a 5 because the fight sequences are decent, and the little girl who plays the daughter (Oona Laurence) is one of the more consistent, empathy-provoking characters.
And these fight sequences are okay, plus Gyllenhaal clearly got in shape for them.
BUT he SO overacts, and the character is SO obnoxious, that it just isn't that fun to watch.
Whether scripted or not, you feel like Gyllenhaal is ad-libbing a constant patter of nonsense babble in many scenes. We're supposed to care a lot that he loses his great wife, and his daughter is taken away from him. But BOTH happen because HE DOES NOT LISTEN, and he never really confronts that killing flaw.
Even in the courtroom scene, when the judge is informing him what's going to happen, Gyllenhaal (I can't feel it's the character) is mugging and clowning and yapping at his daughter across the room, clearly not taking the trial or the judge seriously -- and so, predictably, when the sentence is finished, he says "What?" Yeah, Enstein: what she said while you were acting like a dimwitted toddler.
What arc there is feels jerky and lacks credibility. He's an idiot, he's an idiot, he's an idiot...oh, okay, now he's really going to train for this fight. Well, great, so I guess everything's all fixed now. And if he can beat that other fighter, he'll be a fit father. Great.
It left me more irritated than entertained, and not in any good way.
I gave it a 5 because the fight sequences are decent, and the little girl who plays the daughter (Oona Laurence) is one of the more consistent, empathy-provoking characters.