Southpaw: My Review

The screening for the new Jake Gyllenhaal movie was tonight and from the number of people that showed up it was a hot ticket.  If any of you have seen the zillion commercials for the film, you pretty much know what goes down in the movie: Billy Pope, a boxer at the top of his game, loses his wife, home, and his daughter and fights his way back to the top with the help of a tough trainer played by Forest Whitaker.

Is the movie worth the price of admission? Sure. Gyllenhaal and Whitaker give great performances and Rachel McAdams and young Oona Laurence are exceptional in the roles of Maureen and Leila Pope, but I don't see it being Jake's Oscar winning role. That in my opinion should have been Nightcrawler, a film that was a tour de force for the actor.

Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson and Naomie Harris also appear in the film and 50 brings the right amount of smarminess to his role of Billy' manager Jordon. I would have liked to see more from Naomie's character as a social worker which was originally offered to Lupita Nyong'o who smartly turned it down. The role had no depth and someone of Lupita's talents would have been wasted in the role. Naomie certainly was.

The film opens this Friday nationwide so check it out in your local theater.