Review of “Fighting”
It doesn’t pay to judge a book by its cover. Fighting is a good case in point. The screenplay reads like a dozen other films just like it. Shawn McArthur (Channing Tatum) is a boy from the sticks who has moved to New York with some heavy family baggage and few prospects. Two-bit hustler Harvey (Terrence Howard) notices Shawn hold his own when some crooks make the mistake of robbing him, taking him under his wing and entering him in a series of street fights with an escalating purse.
Harvey sees the chance to finally make some serious money, first by winning fights and then by convincing Shawn to throw them, but working against Harvey are Shawn’s growing feelings for the beautiful Zulay (Zulay Henao), and Shawn’s childhood rival and bitter enemy Evan Hailey (Brian White). A paint-by-numbers screenplay with some truly uninspired dialogue, tons of bloody fight scenes against a New York backdrop… At first glance I would say: by-pass!
Fighting is, however, a pleasant surprise, due in part to top-notch performances by its entire cast, but especially to the assured direction of Dito Montiel. Montiel made his name with the autobiographical film A Guide to Recognising Your Saints. He doesn’t try to pack too much into his film, and so each scene is allowed to breathe. Even peripheral characters have sincere moments. Stefan Czapsky’s camerawork helps in fleshing out the New York underworld as a colourful backdrop to the fight scenes. In after-hours supermarkets, rooftops and nightclubs we meet a milieu of shady characters.
Channing Tatum (GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra) is crazy beautiful, and perfectly cast as a slow, troubled young man. Tatum is surprisingly good, as is Terrence Howard, who gives an interesting characterisation. He speaks slowly, as though Harvey has been beaten too many times, and something about his performance reminds me of tragic and cunning of Dustin Hoffman’s Midnight Cowboy character.
It is because these two rise above the material written for them that you the viewer become so invested in the fight scenes, which are many and gruesome and will have you flinching, but the film is called fighting after all. Boys will love them. Not the film of the year, but certainly worth the price of admission.
CK
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