The fight - Doppia sfida

I wouldn't have watched this, except that I'm working my way through gay cinema. I find boxing absolutely THE lowest form of entertainment. I understand that many people like watching fights and fight movies but for me that's just a sad commentary on the human condition.

So, while this was on I had one eye on a magazine for the first third or so. By midpoint, I got interested and stopped reading the magazine. By three-quarters in, I was totally involved.

I thought the performances were all good. I was conscious of the score reinforcing the mood maybe a little too much. I liked this movie, even though I generally have little respect for the genre. I could appreciate Million Dollar Baby, but I didn't particularly like it. This movie I liked. That probably has more to do with my being gay than anything else.

FIGHTING TOMMY RILEY has so many things going for it that it is amazing it didn't do well in the box office. Perhaps audiences are tired of 'boxing movies' ('Million Dollar Baby' sort of usurped that position for a while), but this is not a typical boxing movie: Fighting Tommy Riley takes risks all over the place and that is what helps make it so fine.

Written by J.P. Davis who also plays the title role, the story is less about Tommy Riley than it is about his trainer Marty Goldberg (long-established fine character actor Eddie Jones): this is not a self promoting Rocky/Sylvester Stallone story, fine as that films series was. For a first time writer and actor and directed by first time director Eddie O'Flaherty and cast with unknowns except for Eddie Jones, this film is a 'knockout' (pardon the pun).

Tommy Riley is a young and gifted boxer on the skids, disillusioned by his loss at an attempt at the Olympic trials, an unfortunate lapse of self-confidence that has destroyed his relationship with his girl Stephanie (Christina Chambers) and forced him to do menial labor just to survive. Concurrently we meet Marty Goldberg, an obese, has been trainer who left the ring because of a dark demon he harbors and has turned to teaching high school English. Marty lives with his dog Lucy in squalor, surrounded by the many books he reads and quotes, memorabilia of a ruined career, and sleeping pills. His one friend is feisty Diane Stone (Diane Taylor) who Marty salvaged some time ago from her own downward plunge. Diane is a boxing promoter looking for a client. When Marty and Diane and Tommy collide the beginning of a vigorous training life begins and each of the three gains a resurgence of self-respect.

Both Tommy and Marty carry a load of baggage demons that eventually surface and as Tommy slowly builds as a fighter ready for competition, Marty's devotion to the kid's career becomes more than professional and an unfortunate but inevitable encounter changes their path toward glory. With Diane's promotion Tommy gains the recognition of big time promoter Riley (Scot Belsky) and Tommy is torn between the promise of fame and wealth and his emotional commitment to Marty: his initial impulse to go with Riley (which is contingent on leaving Marty as a trainer) is met with resistance until Marty humbly encourages Tommy to go for his career rather than his obligation to Marty. The result of Tommy's decision tells the story of the film and to reveal it would be unfair.

Eddie Jones and JP Davis are absolutely superb is these very demanding roles. Rarely as a film about sports been influenced by the presence of sexual preferences, and Eddie Jones handles this enigmatic characteristic with extreme sensitivity and makes us all feel his anguish at the slings that life has thrown his way. And the manner in which Davis finesses both the initial advances from Jones and then gradually alters his response in understanding Jones' behavior is nothing short of miraculous acting. Director O'Flaherty has created a brilliant little film from Davis' fine script and one can only hope there will be more collaborations as excellent as this.

The cinematography (Michael Fimognari) and musical score (Lee Sanders and Tim Simonec) keep the mood of the film flowing. Bravo to all concerned not only for a fine story well done, but also for the courage to focus on sub rosa sexual themes with all the sensitivity this film represents. Highly Recommended.

Grady Harp

Fighting Tommy Riley is simply one of the best Indie films I've seen. It had me glued to the screen within ten minutes. J.P. Davis is a multi-talented man. In addition to playing the title character, he wrote the screenplay and produced the movie as well. And he can act! On the surface he looks like an underwear model, like so many up and coming 20's actors, but this guy has a complete emotional vocabulary. Mainstream Hollywood should be at his doorstep. He completely inhabits Tommy Riley in a way that very few actors with the right "look" could ever hope to achieve. Casting veteran actor Eddie Jones was a coup. Jones meets Davis's intensity on every level and the two of them create a complicated and wonderful rapport. Jones, in fact, is heart breaking; a character that so often slumps into empty sentimentality is rendered with honest reality.

The film is directed superbly. The story is told clearly and directly. The gay subtext of trainer lusting after fighter is handled frankly, sincerely and with a bittersweet truth. It exposes a sad case in our society, straight or gay, that older people are denied physical love at every level.

This is a far more engrossing film than Hollywood hype favorites Cinderella Man and Million Dollar Baby. Director O'Flaherty has more talent in his pinkie than does Ron Howard and Clint Eastwood in their collective big buck bodies.

What is it with Great White Hope stories? And why do so many of them have to be Irish? Fighting Tommy Riley was an attempt at a boxing film with heart. That was the first mistake. The second mistake was naming it "Fighting Tommy Riley". This whole subject is tired and hackneyed. The element of succeeding against odds is a worthy principle, but there must be a better way to do it instead of yet another "Irish" boxing story.

The story is set in LA (I think) - how many Irish boxers are there here? Why couldn't the story have been about 'Fighting Juan Gonzalez' or 'Battling Hector Lopez'? At least then there would have been an element of authenticity. I guess it just doesn't have the same ring. So we're treated to an ahistorical account of Tommy Riley and his fabulous boxing skills with no accounting for his prowess or prominently displayed physique.

After being found at a local gym by an agent and a washed up trainer and now high-school teacher with a penchant for quoting Melville, Tommy agrees to be trained by the rotund Marty. Why and how Marty is such an expert is glossed over yet Tommy accepts his wisdom and becomes his disciple. Unfortunately, it seems that Marty's weakness is not limited to self-discipline at the donut shop. His self-loathing is evident in the debris littered around his living room: empty Chinese food boxes, donut crumbs, sleeping pills...

The film tries to create a bond between trainer and boxer, as all boxing films do. But Tommy has no past; at least, we don't get much insight into his past. And yet he seems troubled. He has a very attractive girlfriend, who occasionally deigns to reprimand him for "not opening up" and "not knowing where she stands." Poor Tommy grinds out his days on the loading dock and his nights at the gym. So Marty becomes the father figure, and a jealous one at that. But he does get Tommy some fights and victories.

When Marty offers to cook for Tommy, you can sense that something is not quite right in his intentions. This is fairly early in the film, yet I found myself wishing the inevitable would not happen. Marty's "protective" instincts for Tommy lead them to an isolated cabin in the woods for a week-long training session. Ah yes, father and son, bonding in the woods: sparring, shadow boxing, rubdowns, quivering hands, and... The ride back to LA is quiet.

Tommy's wins in the ring attract the attention of a promoter with self-aggrandizing intentions (as usual). But he can get Tommy a title shot. On the condition that Marty is removed from the picture. The wholesome and principled Tommy will indignantly have none of that, but after a ride in a limo with his chick, the writing is on the wall. Marty slumps home to beat himself up and hit the bottle. Of sleeping pills.

Ultimately Marty's sacrifice was for Tommy's gain, a not-unmoving theme. But for weak dialog and one-dimensional characters, "Tommy Riley" might have had a shot. For me, the boxing film (Irish or not)needs to be grittier, the way Rocky Balboa started out in a Philadelphia Catholic hall. Otherwise, the whole theme can hung up like a pair of worn-out Everlast gloves.

To be honest, I came in at the middle of this film. but the part I didn't come into was pretty good.

I really have to see the entire film to really give an honest opinion.

There are so many different reviews on this site - it's just crazy.

Tommy seemed to me to be jealous of the old man working with other boxers, so I don't know.

I really need to see the beginning of this film to truly understand the core of their relationship.

I did, however, feel that Tommy did love this man who was his trainer, but in today's world - of course - this type of love is taboo, which is really stupid.