Movie review of “Southpaw”: This cliché-ridden boxing movie, with a theme of redemption, is redeemed by the fine performances of Jake Gyllenhaal, as a hard-luck fighter, and Forest Whitaker, as a hard-nosed trainer. Rating: 2.5 stars out of 4.
“Southpaw,” a boxing movie with a theme of redemption, is redeemed by the performances of its two main actors, Jake Gyllenhaal and Forest Whitaker.
Its script, by Kurt Sutter, is a compendium of every boxing-movie cliché imaginable. Obviously a product of the Stacked Deck school of screenwriting, Sutter burdens hardscrabble hero Billy Hope (Gyllenhaal) with a string of travails that would make Job weep.