Hype – is what I felt when I first saw the trailer for this movie, I mean… just look at the movie posters! Look at that photo! Maybe it’s just a thing I have for boxing movies, but damn did that trailer look good. I had only just seen the Creed trailer too, so I anticipate reviewing the two comparatively. I think there’s some sort of trigger in me that makes me weak for boxing movies.
I am fresh from just having watched and reviewed Creed, so I now have a relatively straightforward comparison to make. Southpaw definitely has a more intense fight scene and I would even say there was more than double the drama through the story plot. Gyllenhaal has a more dramatic role to handle where he goes through the accidental death of his wife, which he fails to overcome alone and watches the world around him crumble as he falls into a pit that he eventually has to climb out of. He was perfect for this character with his proven acting range and incredible dedication to beefing up the way he did from a much weakened state in which he transformed himself for in his more eery role as Louis in Nightcrawler. Some could even say the boxing was the background to a dramatic story and that it was a metaphor to him fighting for his live back, fighting for the custody of his daughter after the loss of his wife. The acting was strong in this movie and brought plenty of emotions and progressive character development within Gyllenhaal’s character himself, Whitaker and also between father and daughter.
As I said at the start, I was particulary drawn to the movie by the dramatic trailer hype of a boxing movie where a man is out for revenge of his murdered wife in the boxing ring (how insanely dramatic does that sound already!) But large portions of the movie did drag on and left me checking the time. Jake Gyllenhaal is undoubtedly one of my favourite actors with diverse range; just that there is only so much self-pitying one can do in a movie before you start cringing. Overkill. Nonetheless, I favoured Southpaw over Creed.
The Ricebin 