If only screenwriter Kurt Sutter worked as hard as star Jake Gyllenhaal, then maybe Southpaw would have survived the moutain of cliches and erratic storytelling that permeate the majority of the film. It's way over-the-top, suffering from an unfocused narrative and a severe lack of depth, with even the boxing scenes failing to produce much in the way of excitement. The quality of the acting is what salvages it from the scrap heap. Though if you have an Academy Award winning actor in Forest Whitaker, probably best NOT to keep him on the bench for the first half of the movie, then give him precious little to do once he does arrive. Yet, as I seem to be saying quite often lately, Gyllenhaal's electric, central performance has a galvanizing effect, lifting this thoroughly mediocre effort into something watchable. Though you often wish all his hard work hadn't been squandered, it is still worth the price of a ticket. Oh what Martin Scorsese could have built around this lead performance.
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