O Lutador

A former IRA man gets out of the can after 14 years and tries to rebuild his life in his old rundown Belfast neighbourhood.

This is a film that tries to cover a lot of ground and get a lot in. It has natural dramatic plus points in being set in a community that has been wrecked by civil war but has the hope of a new dawn. If only people would let it rise.

Prison does a lot to people. It is like a virus. It wears people down and changes them. Makes them harder and sexless. This is well portrayed in this movie. Boyle (Day-Lewis) has been inside almost all his adult life and is immature, but well contained.

Boxing is not the heart of this movie -- indeed it could live without it completely. It gives a dramatic centre, while the real drama is elsewhere and the message is not contained in the punches. In lots of ways it is a ticket selling con.

Director Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot/In The Name of the Father) has done well with the limited material that forms the script. He uses a cool blue to replace the cold grey of the real Belfast. This prevents the place looking as dreadful as it really is and losing the audience.

Ken Stott plays an alcoholic boxing trainer who has a good heart and wants for the best. Sadly I don't put great store in men that decide they want to live their life in a stupor. Stott is a good actor though.

There is also a love story in this movie with Day-Lewis starting top pick up the pieces with his old flame Emily Watson. However the situation is complicated as her close relations don't fully approve (for reasons I don't want to go in to here.)

Any film that involves boxing has to nod to films like Rocky and Raging Bull -- and this film acknowledges it without borrowing too much. Indeed this is not really a boxing picture (as I said before) more a film about a man that uses boxing as he has very little else to cling on to.

The real weak point is the way ex-terrorist Danny (Lewis) is welcomed back and made a hero out of. Wouldn't his criminal record not prevent him from being welcome on the British mainland? Equally how good a boxer is he? Can't tell from the evidence here. Also you need a license to box in the UK -- and these are not handed out willy-nilly.

Small quibbles aside The Boxer is a better film than I thought it would be. It doesn't rub my nose in it any longer than necessary and all the thing really needs is something to climax on. What they come up with here is pretty weak and open.

Jim Sheridan's films are always powerful. Shakespearian in their intensity of character conflict, they bristle with grit, are masterfully acted, and propel themselves the way John Ford's best films do. I consider him, even with his limited output, one of the great A list directors. No, his camera work isn't stunning crane and rail ballet, it's old school - but GREAT old school - Zinneman, Ford. And if you're a filmgoer who likes to care deeply about characters, Sheridan makes your kind of film.

Acting doesn't get better or more truthful than Daniel Day Lewis and Emily Watson working together. They're absolutely believable - inspiring actually - as a couple struggling through forbidden love after 14 years apart. The dialogue they work with is A plus and written by Sheridan; thus it's probably tuned collaboratively during rehearsal. Very organic. Great (!) work by Gerard McSorley, Brian Cox (L.I.E.) and David Stott as Ike.

Yep, Northern Ireland as Sheridan portrays it can be dreary, as commented here. But it's also full of humanity, drunkeness, hope, cruelty, love, loyalty, oppression, and a desperate longing for change - all the stuff of true drama. The action commences at the moment Ireland is on the cusp of real but fragile peace. Boxing and the IRA? A one two punch.

I love this film and I'd watch it again with any friend who wanted to see an excellently written and played picture. If you want your blood to boil from some fine performers playing strongly written characters, check this out. Not quite "Elizabeth", but powerful. Good enough dramatically (albeit not quite visually) to sit on the same shelf with Raging Bull.

Daniel Day-Lewis plays a former IRA man released from prison for a bombing that took place years ago. While out and about, he tries to put his life back together by opening up a gym open to everyone regardless of their religious beliefs and rekindles an old romance with Emily Watson, even though she's got a kid and her husband, one of Day-Lewis's former fellow IRA mates, is still in jail. Naturally, the IRA starts making life rough for Day-Lewis, but he refuses to back down and be intimidated in the face of adversity.

Sure it may not dig as deeply on uncomfortable subjects the way "My Left Foot", "In The Name of the Father" or even "The Last of the Mohicans", but this is still a damn fine film addressing a still current problem in Ireland.

Daniel Day-Lewis and Emily Watson are a great pair and their chemistry helps keep the film aloft.

I really liked this film for several reasons. Firstly, it dares to tell the story of ordinary people caught up in a conflict that they don't want to be a part of, and having their best hopes crushed. The script isn't written to be a crowd-pleaser.

Secondly, the story and the style of narration is wonderfully subdued and lowkey, both fitting the story perfectly and allowing the viewer to really involve him/herself in the story and characters.

Finally, the performances of Day-Lewis and Watson are very good. Day-Lewis lends great credibility to his character. He is no Mel Gibson or Harrison Ford rising again with a firm jaw after each blow, but rather a believable portrait of a man believing and wanting to do his best, but time and time again having his hopes crushed.

But the real star performance of the film is by Watson. After "Breaking the Waves" I had written her off (sorry, but I tend to do that with people who have played in von Trier movies), but her performance in this film is simply outstanding. Her portrait of both pride, strength and vulnerability is amazing.

9 out of 10.

The Boxer is an excellent film in almost all its aspects. The acting is quite good across the board, especially Emily Watson and Brian Cox. The cinematography is often stunning, especially in the way it uses the cold and minimalist color palette. There's a palatable sense of tension that flows throughout the picture, made more taut by the various directing techniques used by Jim Sheridan. One technique is the shots from the helicopters that circle above Belfast, showing a community that is under siege and giving a greater perspective on what it's like to live in this part of the city. And there are three parts to the story, all of which work very well. There's the story of Danny's release from prison and his attempt to start a boxing club. There's the romance between him and Emily Watson, a romance that is forbidden by I.R.A. codes. And then there's the I.R.A. themselves, struggling to find peace but being broken apart from within by leaders of splinter factions. A very moving film (with a great score by Gavin Friday and Maurice Seezer as well) and a film that really addresses the issues of neverending violence in a very direct and emotional way.