Jake Gyllenhaal is Billy Hope, an aging, battle hardened boxer who has been at the top of his game for many years after rising from a tough childhood in the child services system and it’s his wife Maureen (Rachel McAdams) who is the real brains behind his career and keeps both his promoter Jordan (Curtis Jackson) and his entourage in check, ensuring that Billy gets the right deals that are best for their future. She is trying to convince Billy to start looking at retirement in order to spend some time with their growing daughter Leila (Oona Laurence) before it is too late.

As inevitably occurs a younger pretender emerges for Billy’s crown and Miguel Escobar (Miguel Gomez) starts to follow Billy around to his public appearances trying to goad him into accepting a title fight that neither Jordan or Maureen want Billy to take at that time as they feel it may be his last fight. During one of these events a scuffle breaks out and Maureen is accidentally shot by one of Escobars posse. Billys world is shattered and he spirals into plains of alcoholism, drug use and suicidal thoughts, when he ends up attacking a referee during a fight he is also banned from boxing and his daughter is taken from his so he is left with a choice to clean up his act, try to get back in the ring and get his daughter back so he approaches a new trainer Tick (Forrest Whitaker) who reluctantly agrees to help him.

I’m a fan of Gyllenhaal and he once again does a good job as the troubled boxer, he manages to portray a great swing between the confident, bloodied, screaming man in the ring and the quiet, almost insecure character outside of the ring who only wants the love of his wife, child and friends and while it’s his not his best performance, the situation called for an underplaying of the role and he hit the nail on the head. There is some excellent camera work during the fight sequences which get across the anger and greatly builds the intensity of the situation and although the scenes outside of the ring lack the same intensity the talents of Whittaker, McAdams and some great work from child actor Laurence make for some good viewing during the quieter moments but the script does suffer from some subplots feeling shoe horned into the story rather than actually being necessary. It’s not the best boxing movie you’re ever going to watch but if you like sports dramas then there’s a good movie here.

DJ Speaks Rating: 6 Out Of 10