Southpaw Review: It is NOT "Just Another Boxing Movie"!

I've always been a sucker for Jake Gyllenhaal and there isn't a movie of him I haven't watched, which is why I've been quite excited about Southpaw especially following the great trailers I've seen. I finally got a chance to watch this movie last night and I have nothing but positive things to say.

Southpaw follows the story of a multiple-time lightweight champion boxer, Billy Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal) and his struggles to keep his life intact after a tragic accident breaks apart his family leading him to lose everything and almost everyone he loves. 

When Hope's loving wife Maureen Hope (Rachel McAdams) dies in a shooting during a charity event, he loses his will to fight and falls into a deep depression. Anger issues, drugs, firearms and even an attempt at suicide results in Hope's little daughter Leila Hope (Oona Laurence) to be taken into Child Protective Services which destructs Billy Hope even more.

In order to get his daughter Leila back, Billy Hope needs to get his life together and prove to the authorities that he can take care of his daughter and be a responsible parent. We see him try to do whatever he can to win back her daughter's trust and to prove to court that he is able to take care of her.

In order to do that, he needs to take anger management classes, find a home after losing his possibly billions of dollars worth of mansion, hold a job to have stable income and take weekly drug tests.

Billy meets his future trainer Tick Wills (Forest Whitaker) in his gym where he tries to find a place to work and train. Tick Wills agrees to help him train against Miguel 'Magic' Escobar (Miguel Gomez),vthe current lightweight champion which is a title once belonged to Billy Hope and a title that he must win again to get his life back together. Miguel was the factor that started the chain of events that led to the death of Hope's wife so I'm sure you can imagine that this will not be just any other boxing match.

I've never seen Jake Gyllenhaal be this emotionally invested and vulnerable in a movie before and I must admit I was totally stunned by his impeccable acting. Before I saw this movie, I said that he had the best performance of his career in Nightcrawler, but right now I will rectract that statement and say that Southpaw is his ultimate prime moment. If he doesn't get a nod from the Oscars I will most likely rage about it on this blog...

I particularly enjoyed the dynamic between Jake Gyllenhaal and Oona Laurence. If Oona decides to pursue an acting career, I think she has the potential to be quite successful. My favourite scene took place during the court where child protective services took Leila away from Billy. It was such a dramatic and very well done scene and both actors were completely flawless! 

If you aren't watching Southpaw for thinking "It's just another boxing movie" (based on some posts I've seen in a social media website I frequent), you are mistaken and you are missing out on a fantastic movie. Because Southpaw is not "just" another boxing movie. It's an emotional story of a father's "fight" to win back his daughter. Stories like that always manage to move me as most fathers just abandon their daughters or abandon them even when being physically present in the family which is possibly even worse...

If anything else fails to capture your attention, I'm sure Jake's hot body uhm... I mean magnificent acting *coughs* *coughs* can keep you more than interested. In short, give Southpaw a go. It's a great movie!