Billy Hope is fighting for custody of his daughter Leila after she was taken by child welfare due to Billy's incapacity to be a father. He's a boxer who lost everything when he could not cope well with his wife's death.
It was a little difficult watching this film. It's difficult to watch someone ruin his life and it is even more difficult to watch him ruin someone else. It hits you blow by blow like a boxing match and you're just waiting for the bell to ring, hoping some sort of miracle would happen.
The story may not be entirely uncommon, but the real strength of this film are the performances of Rachel McAdams, Forest Whitaker and Jake Gyllenhaal. Rachel's performance as the wife Maureen is short but her character lingers all throughout the film. Forest delivers the most riveting performance here, as the coach who saw Hope in Hope. Jake's complete performance as an incomplete person draws you in his clinch but begs you to not let go.
The movie made some bad decisions by trudging along a familiar route. Treatment of some scenes were clichéd, predictable and unbelievably contemptible. Watching it breaks the dramatic flow of the movie and became a little bit distracting. If you can look beyond that flaw, and appreciate the movie for its message of love and endure through all the pain that Billy Hope had gone through then you come out of the theatre feeling grateful.
test
ReplyDelete