Boxer Billy Hope turns to trainer Tick Willis to help him get his life back on track after losing his wife in a tragic accident and his daughter to child protection services.
Director: Antoine Fuq
Writer: Kurt Sutter
Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rachel McAdams, Oona Laurence | See full cast and crew.
Storyline
As tragedy strikes him in his prime, famed boxer, Billy Hope, begins to fall into a great depression. Once the decision regarding the custody of his daughter is under question, Billy decides to get his life back on track by getting back into the ring.
Box Office
Budget:
$30,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend:
$16,701,294 (USA) (24 July 2015)
Gross:
$48,062,035 (USA) (21 August 2015)
As with most sports dramas, Southpaw is a film more about the man than the sport. Labelled by many as the 'modern day Raging Bull', I had high hopes for Southpaw and thanks to Jake Gyllenhaal, it duly delivered. This is a tale of one man's path to redemption through boxing.
Billy Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal) is the Light Heavyweight champion of the world and a boxer known for his unique style and impressive fight record. When his wife, Maureen (Rachel McAdams), is shot dead following a scuffle with title contender Miguel Escobar (Miguel Gomez), both Billy's career and personal life go in a downward spiral that sees him
Billy turns to trainer Tick Wills (Forest Whitaker) to help him get his life back on track. Carry on down the same path and Billy could lose his daughter
As mentioned before, the film focuses more on the man than the
Southpaw does become a bit predictable and features quite a few clichés, which can't be helped in this genre, but director Antoine Fuqua does a good job in making sure Southpaw has a bit of a cutting edge to it. This is a hard hitting drama that isn't scared to throw the hardest of punches at its audience.
After leaving the cinema, I read that Eminem had been lined up for the role of Billy Hope when the film first came into production. How different a film that would have been. I could not be more thankful that the studio decided not to follow through with that and instead decided to cast Gyllenhaal in the role instead.
Gyllenhaal is an actor who makes it clear that he takes his roles very seriously and you can see that from the transformation he has put his body through, becoming almost
The transformation would mean absolutely nothing without the performance to match though. As expected, Gyllenhaal gives an absolute powerhouse of a performance in Southpaw that really raises the quality of the film because without him, this would be quite an average film. I struggle to think of an actor right now on a hotter streak in Hollywood than Gyllenhaal.
Forest Whitaker, as usual, adds a quality to
The boxing sequences are very good as well, with the use of POV shots in particular injecting the sequences with adrenaline and making the audience feel every single punch thrown.
While Southpaw isn't the masterpiece that Raging Bull is, it
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