Against The Ropes
Release Date: February 20, 2004
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for crude language, violence, brief sensuality and some drug material
Directed by: Charles S. Dutton
Starring: Meg Ryan, Omar Epps, Tony Shalhoub, Tim Daly, Kerry Washington, Joe Cortese, Charles S. Dutton
Plot:
The daughter of a trainer, Jackie Kallen (Meg Ryan) grew up skipping rope in a downtown Detroit gym alongside her uncle, a fighter himself. Now, at 36, Jackie's ready to carry on the family tradition. Trying to make her mark in the boxing world, Jackie spends a lot of her free time working the room at D'Agostino's, a pugs and thugs hangout known for its stiff drinks and bloody steaks. After drinks with Cleveland's local hotshot TV sportscaster, Gavin Reese (Tim Daly), Jackie ends up in a verbal sparring match with the Midwest's boxing kingpin, Sam LaRocca (Tony Shalhoub). Just to belittle her, he sells her the contract of one of his fighters for a dollar... and that's just about what Devon Greene (Tory Kittles) is worth. It turns out Devon's more interested in smoking crack than boxing. But Jackie's dollar ends up being well spent anyway. When she goes to Devon's apartment to introduce herself as his new manager, she arrives just as his drug dealer's enforcer, Luther Shaw (Omar Epps), is beating him up. Instantly, she recognizes that it is Luther, not Devon, who has the potential to be her champion. Bailing Luther out of jail, Jackie convinces him to pursue boxing and to let her be his manager. Then, with the help of Felix Reynolds (Charles S. Dutton), a veteran trainer whom she coaxes out of retirement, Jackie turns Luther from a jail-bound punk into a streamlined prizefighter... and at the same time, turns herself into one of the most successful female managers in boxing history.
Review:
Boxing is a sport that takes plenty of training, continuous exercise and healthy eating to keep in shape. Its tough to do a lot of that, but its a job and is taken seriously just like any other job. Sports are not less work than your everyday job, thats for certain. Luther Shaw played by Omar Epps learns just that. To be committed to something you have to be on it day in and day out and basically every day throughout the week.
Against the ropes features Jackie Kallen who is played by Meg Ryan. She has this incredible passion for boxing since she was a small child. However, as a woman in order to get into the business it is double the work than a man would have to do. Jackie wasn't aiming to become a boxer though, she was aiming to find a boxer that she can become the manager for. It just so happens that her searching didn't have to be a long scavenger hunt because she witnesses a fight in a house and sees a good amount of potential in the man. The man that she discovers is Luther Shaw himself.
Now, lets break this down for a minute. Regular street fighting is nothing like boxing. I don't doubt that potential or talent can be seen by just any regular fight in the street. That can most certainly be a possibility. As we see in Against The Ropes, Jackie goes ahead and takes the risk. She grabs some unknown man that is hardly intelligent nor can keep a stable job. Well, you can certainly change people, thats a fact. For changes to occur it takes patience though.
I must say that Meg Ryan looked incredibly beautiful in Against The Ropes. Her outfits were stunning and she added a nice touch to the film.
It puts a smile on my face to see that this film didn't crash down like In The Cut did just last year. Meg Ryan was also in that film and although she acted well, once again the film avoided the whole point of the movie which was the murder that took place and it also desperately injected sex scenes to fill the gaps in the film. In The Cut had so many problems that it is completely useless to name all of them. Speaking about problems, Against The Ropes, also had its share.
The problems with Against the Ropes are visible and totally uncontrolled nonetheless. There are certain scenes that make you shake your head a couple of times because they ruined the mood they had going. The screenplay and only the screenplay is to blame for this. As to what the scenes are, specifically there was one scene where it was intended to give the audience a bit of comic relief, but instead it chopped down the mountain it was building. For those who have seen it, Luther Shaw is about to drink a glass of juice and Jackie avoids him doing so. Therefore, she grabs it away from him and goes up to a close by boxer. She gives him a flirtacious look and she drops the ring on her hand "accidentally". The boxer of course bends down and gets it for her. As he does this Jackie grabs his glass and switches it with the one she had. Later on in the film he has a match with Luther Shaw and we notice that this juice contained some type of gas related drug or laxative because he begins to have stomach pains, sweats and relieves some gas at the end of the match. He also lost the match because of that. It may seem like just a small incident that shouldn't affect the film as a whole, but that was quite memorable and memorable in a bad way.
There was an aspect of the film that they showed and mentioned in the beginning, but then avoided it completely all throughout it. This of course is about Jackie's uncle and father. As a child her father never wanted her to get involved with boxing and her uncle said she will grow up to be a strong woman. Those powerful words or her family is forgotten for the rest of the movie and it almost seems like it was there for pointless reasons.
Another thing that bothered me from Against The Ropes was that they were showing a special on Jackie's life of how she got to where she were. That itself did not bother me, but the fact that the host of it insults Jackie and puts her down many times is completely unrealistic. Everyone would be fired.
Despite the minor flaws, it doesn't hurt the overall product of the film. Against The Ropes makes up for it more than enough. It also shows us a good amount of interviews, autograph signing and events that boxers and their manager have to be a part of. I congratulate the crew on showing us that because it certainly is the truth and it certainly is hard work. In fact, on television the boxers most of the time always seem ready for the fight and seem to be quite excited for the fight. In Against The Ropes you can sense Luther's anger and nervousness for the fights that approach him.
Also, as we continue going through the film, Jackie takes away all the spotlight that Luther Shaw should be getting. This ends up a being a big deal and Jackie is not seen on Luther's corner for a quite a long while. Not only does Luther avoid her, but she gets excluded from many boxing events and everyone tends to dislike her immensely in that point in time.
This was Charles Dutton's debut as a film director. I can tell you that it shows his rookie style of directing as there was nothing that shined insignificantly in Against The Ropes. With that being said, there is plenty of fun and realism to have with this film. What I can see from Charles's vision is a beginning state of filmmaking and a vision of showing messages to the audience on the greatness of Boxing.
Meg Ryan played her character very well as a calm and sweet woman desperately trying to be around the boxing crowd. She has plenty of scenes where she sheds tears and it is completely believable. Meg has always had a thing for drama and romance as well. Against The Ropes is a slightly flawed film, but for what it wanted to do, it did it pretty good. Its a film that takes you away into the world of management on how boxing works. I see no reason why not to go check this film out, especially if you are a fan of boxing.
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