Review of The Boxer (1997) by Ross L — 18 Mar 2009

For all its grim, late-Troubles-era sociopolitical realism, Jim Sheridan's "The Boxer" fights to a stalemate. Perhaps it reflected the protracted stand-off in Northern Ireland at the time (which was nonetheless close to resolving itself, or coming as close to doing so as it ever could), but the film is as trapped and impotent as the circumstances it portrays.

Day-Lewis' Danny Flynn is the simple, plain-spoken avatar of this inability to progress, a harbinger of years and generations of lost hopes and squandered opportunities. Day-Lewis and his romantic lead Emily Watson both manage some moments of intensity and occasionally penetrate their characters' volatile world, but mostly they're swept up in the flashy plot and melodramatic twists, prisoners of the generic conventions instead of the social reality.

Sheridan's Belfast is shot in drab concrete tones, the only brief stabs of colour provided by blood and flags. The boxing scenes play off as such scenes usually do in films, nothing less or more. There's certainly an attempt being made to portray a sort of utilitarian, working-class eloquence, but the result is constipated and pent-up and any pathos is fleeting.

"The Boxer" is a film too invested in the effort to be important to bother being anything else for too long, which is unfortunate considering the talent involved...