Jake Gyllenhaal is one crazy, cut son of a bitch in Southpaw, a boxing movie that I would call formulaic if not for the fact that just about every damn boxing movie is formulaic. Entertaining, engaging and featuring some solid boxing sequences, Southpaw offers what genre fans want--even if the movie throws a few soft punches.

Gyllenhaal plays a balls-to-the-wall champion boxer who loses everything--literally, somehow, everything--after a horrible tragedy (which, having not watched the trailers ahead of time, I did not see coming). As in predictable boxing movie style, he hires a new trainer (Forest Whitaker) to prepare for a comeback.

Early chatter has thrown more than a few hate-punches at this Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) drama, but Southpaw has everything a boxing movie needs:

• A good protagonist - Jake Gyllenhaal is terrific, especially how limiting his character is, and is nearly unrecognizable.
• A few big boxing sequences - one at the beginning, one at the end and the world is all good.
• The obligatory training sequence - cue Rocky music, or not, but it’s there!
• A reason to come back - I’d say he has a good reason or two.

All the other things, like depth of script or nuance of the drama, don’t really matter, and frankly, Southpaw is perfectly fine in both departments. There are a few plot holes--even with financial mismanagement issues, how does Gyllenhaal’s character go from living in a mansion and raking in millions per fight to literally having nothing in the span of a few months?--and Fuqua and screenwriter Kurt Sutter (“The Shield”) could have done a better job with some of their subplots, like cutting out the emotionally flat Hoppy bit or delivering payoff on 50 Cent’s involvement.

But the filmmakers do a good job of portraying what a man, who already has anger management issues to begin with, might look like when he loses everything--while still making him likable enough for us to want him to get redemption. More time between Gyllenhaal and his on-screen daughter (Oona Laurence) would have been good, but their bond is believable enough, even if the logic behind their ups-and-downs isn't very well developed.

The fight scenes are brutal and pretty engrossing, though they would have been better had Fuqua resisted the urge to jump outside the ring so frequently. All in all, the fights are fun to watch, and even dull boxing movies can be reprieved through a climactic showdown (see: Ali).

The only truly problematic aspect of Southpaw is the music, which sounded like it was added in at the last second. The music comes and goes abruptly, and the new song by Eminem is not among his more memorable ones.

Southpaw has its flaws, but it still manages to lay a few solid punches. A great performance by Jake Gyllenhaal and an enjoyably predictable story makes Southpaw a worthy contender, even if it won’t go down in history as one of the greats.

Review by Erik Samdahl.