⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ (out of 5 stars)
Women's boxing can split the room among sports fans when it comes to the entertainment value it offers in the world of hand-to-hand combat. Yet if one woman were at the forefront of this sport and set the standard, it would go on to deliver for its fans, as Christy Salters (Sydney Sweeney) did. Animal Kingdom writer and director David Michôd brings the boxer's story to the big screen, showing how fame and fortune can come with a cost, even when the athlete loves what they do.
Christy Salters grew up in Itmann, West Virginia, in the 1980s, and discovered she had a gift for boxing. Her skills catch the attention of a local promoter, who suggests she consider training under James Martin (Ben Foster), who sees the potential in this untrained fighter. As Christy trains and rises in the ranks of the burgeoning female boxing community, she must wrestle with her sexual identity and decide if she should get in a romantic relationship with her trainer. Once she gets the attention of mega-promoter Don King (Chad L. Coleman), the boxer's career and the niche market for women's boxing begin to take off. As her star rises, the champion starts to see that her husband/trainer is holding her back from her potential and her secret personal desires.
Sydney Sweeney delivers a career-best performance that plays against standard glamorous roles for which she is known. The Euphoria actress puts in the necessary hard yards as a boxer to be convincing in the boxing silks. She taps into the darker side of Christy Salters' life, and her unexpected co-dependency on her abusive husband is played with disturbing effectiveness by Ben Foster. Their journey makes for compelling cinema for those fascinated by this sector of boxing and the history Salters played in getting women's boxing on the map.
Unfortunately, the film's biggest weakness is the personal character of Christy Salters. Understandably, her family history, the nature of the sport and her closeted sexuality play a contributing factor in her personality and demeanour. Still, as numerous characters in the film mention, she is hard to like. Despite Sydney Sweeney's best efforts, there is little to like about the boxer, and the film's attempts to make her story sympathetic and engaging fall short. In the end, Christy feels like a gut-punch at every turn of this story. Admittedly, she developed a resolve that can be otherworldly at times; this can't make up for her lack of appeal as a person or as the central character of a movie.
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Reel Dialogue: Pride causes a knock out punch
As this film unfolds, a familiar phrase will play in the minds of anyone who has watched the boxing pre-fight ritual. Christy Salters is the epitome of someone whose own hubris has taken over her life. Not that anyone deserves to be abused or rejected by their family. Still, her story proves that no one seems immune to the reality of the proverb, regardless of how successful life may be for the individual.
Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall. - Proverbs 16:18 (NLT)
Many may not know that this is a Biblical concept and that it lies at the root of mankind's original sin. Every person, barring one, in history has or will succumb to this nasty human trait that remains at the heart of all of humanity's failings. This metaphor for the human condition proves that pride is the problem in the story and that the escape from this vicious counterpart can only be found outside of ourselves. Even though the disastrous nature of pride is introduced in the Bible, this book also provides the means of escaping its influence. Humility is the antithesis of the vicious cycle of pride, exemplified by the person of Jesus.
