Film Review: Southpaw

Southpaw is the Jake Gyllenhaal movie you did not know you needed. It is a fantastic motivational sports movie, filled with drama and suspense. In my opinion, Southpaw is the best boxing movie since Million Dollar Baby, which Clint Eastwood starred and directed. This movie will leave you on the edge of your seat and make you seriously contemplate boxing lessons.

Billy Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal) is currently holding an outstanding undefeated record of 43-0 and is the Light Heavyweight champion of the world. His only flaw is that he does not seem to understand the concept of defense because all of his fights leave him bleeding on himself and everything around him. In the ring, he regularly allows jabs to his face.

He has a typical rags to riches story and spent his young life in Hell’s Kitchen Orphanage. The bright side of his time spent in an orphanage is that he learned to box as an outlet and where he met his beautiful wife, Maureen (Rachel McAdams). Maureen attends all of Billy’s matches and clearly loves him. The tender love scenes between Maureen and Billy are sweet and realistic. Maureen wants Billy to stop boxing, she is tired of seeing him get beat up in the ring and wants him to spend more time with her and their young daughter, Leila (Oona Laurence). Their life right now is impressive, but everything soon falls apart.

At a charity dinner, where Billy gives a speech about his life in Hell’s Kitchen Orphanage, Maureen is killed. A rival of Billy Hope, Miguel Escobar (Miguel Gomez), indirectly caused her death.

Very quickly, everything goes downhill. Billy Hope cannot pull himself together after Maureen’s death and loses his home and all of his possessions. His daughter is taken away by Child Protective Services and his once trusted agent (Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson), leaves him to be a manager for Miguel instead. Billy ends up desperately needing a job and finds himself at the gym of Tick Wills (Forest Whitaker) who teaches Billy a method of fighting that includes shielding your face.

Jake Gyllenhaal trained for four months and put on 15 pounds of muscle for the role of Billy. He delivers an excellent performance that went way beyond the typical sports movie character. He put his whole heart into creating a character with great physical and emotional strength. His emotional scenes are just as powerful as the fight scenes.

The director, Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Equalizer) must have invested a lot of energy into making sure that the scenes shot in the ring were genuine because it felt like being part of the audience of a real boxing match. His cinematographer Mauro Fiore, a winner of several Academy Awards, shines in every scene. From the vivid fight in Madison Square Garden to the final battle between two talented boxers in Vegas and all the emotional bits in between, Fiore proves his worth, as does the film editor, John Refoua.

Eminem’s song “Phenomenal” is a song about struggle and Eminem’s own fight with entering the rap world. It is a fitting song for the movie and is played during Billy Hope’s training sessions with Tick Wills. Eminem was originally signed on to star in Southpaw back in 2010, but he decided to leave and focus on his music instead. He still wanted to be involved with the movie, so he chose to be the executive producer for the soundtrack.

Southpaw is a movie about rising from the ashes and coming out on top. Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance is mesmerizing and Rachel McAdams has never been better. This movie is rated R so it’s not suitable for children. It is a must see for anyone who is a fan of sports, Jake Gyllenhaal, or feeling motivated.