Punch

Jim (Jordan Oosterhof) has been trained by his father Stan Richardson (Tim Roth) since boyhood to be a boxer. The girls are all after him. He gets entangled with a gay Maori named Whetu (Conan Hayes).

I don't like Jim initially although one can claim that he's just being a guy. The annoying teenage boy has never been my favorite trope. Then he changes and that is an interesting journey. There are bumps in the road for the story and not all of it is good. He and his father surprise me. Tim Roth has limited screen time, but he shines whenever he's on. I do have some questions about the story and that keeps me from truly loving this.

It can be hard to be gay no matter where you are. Conservative or Moderate and even liberal, small minds make you want to leave. In this small town jobs are disappearing by the second so the father does what he can to help his son (Jim) get free via boxing. Though in a backwards way. Jim is becoming strong of mind but he is still naive and he is learning who he is what he wants likes making videos. Whetu is good, artistic and edged due to how the world treats him due to his sexuality. And the mistakes we make that lead to bigger consequences even when we try to do good, survive and just be emotionally well and free.

This movie is about the attempt to persevere and the drive to figure yourself out even when horrible things are ocurring around you. To find the path and walk it to the other side and when you get there to breath air that tastes like your first drink of water. But sometimes we don't get there. Or we don't get there the way we originally thought we would.

I am impressed by the allegory of fighting to get out, of your hometown, your surroundings, that which is known. Jordan Oosterhof who stirs the same feelings Matt Damon did 30 years ago fights to win and as a girlfriend says, he is a beast. Running nude on a beach, he encounters Colin Hayes, half Maori and all gay. Encountering a jellyfish, he renders first aid to our fallen hero. Things proceed between them as expected.

Antihero Tim Roth of Pulp Fiction fame is a dad who needs his son to win but as a drunk, he has limitations. Local gymowners want a piece of son Jim and a piece of Maori Waitu too so they conspire to coach Jim to win for them. Dad has an issue and tries to stand up for his son. He doesn't need to escape so he does. Maybe Waitu waiting? Maybe not? Freedom.

A predictable story line once all the loose ends are tied up following an interesting start. Too bad about the script. The dialogue is very thin and a good editing is needed to condense elements of character in the two main protagonists right from the start. Photography excels, as does sound recording, but with New Zealand as a backdrop that is almost a given. For a relatively low budget film it feels quite professional. A red Pontiac convertible from the early 70's played a role. Was it intended?

I respect comments already made here by others who were puzzled by how a small town could host a major boxing match. The last third of the film resorted to this plot trope straight out of the 1950's. Finally, knowing the locale as I do, I had a hard time picturing Conan as a traditional Maori.

My first problem was the enormous difficulty I had in believing for even a nanosecond that Conan Hayes playing Whetu was a Maori. The second was imagining that twenty six year old Jordan Oosterhof as Jim Richardson was a seventeen year old boxer. Yes, he was fit and did a good impression of punching to a lay person like me but his pretty face, with its unbroken nose, was completely unconvincing.

The other unconvincing thing was the burgeoning friendship between Whetu and Jim. That Jim put his arm round Whetu in front of small-minded townsfolk just didn't compute. Even more so when this gave Ron leverage over him.

Tim Roth as Dad gave a good performance but what else what would we have expected?

The cast tried their best with a mediocre script that just didn't gel with the supposed characters of the players. Lyrical outbursts were just not appropriate to the personalities of the situation of a small hick town.

As the film rushed to its conclusion, few loose ends were resolved. Arson, betting, breach of contract, imminent death, relationships. Everything was left in the air. While we were wondering about this, the film ended with the performance of a song of such cloying sentimentality that I nearly gagged.

So, there were a few good moments but most of the film was incoherent. I cannot really recommend it.