In his latest cinema outing Jake Gyllenhaal takes on the role of light-heavyweight champion of the world, Billy Hope, torn apart after family disaster and a failing boxing career (I shan’t spoil the plot for you my readers). For this role Gyllenhaal undertook an unreal exercise regime, straight off of the back of Nightcrawler, which involved training for six hours a day for six months, the results speak for themselves…

 

As for his boxing moxie, Billy seeks the help of Forest Whitaker, who plays Titus ‘Tick’ Wills, a stereotypical ex-pro trainer, sworn off training pro boxers; instead training underprivileged kids in the projects… This may be an obvious trope for boxing film, but Southpaw manages to steer clear of the biggest pitfalls , with minimal training montages, and not even a flicker of Eye of the Tiger… Which is a very good thing! The fight scenes are well choreographed, and the soundtrack makes you feel every dodge and hear the impact of every punch.

 

Interestingly, this film was supposed to be the spiritual-successor to 8 Mile, with Eminem as its lead character… I for one am very glad that he chose to write a new album instead. This partly due to a love of Mr Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko is one of my all time favourite films!) and partly due to my anticipation of a boxing film finally coming close to the power and elegance of Raging Bull (if you haven’t seen this, please do!). Southpaw comes close to this, but still falls short… He might be the world champion, Billy Hope still hasn’t taken my title from Jake Lamotta. But this said, all in all, Southpaw is a powerful film, filled with pathos and love, twinned with blood, sweat and tears… Check it out in cinemas now.

 

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