Synopsis
Billy "The Great" Hope, the reigning junior middleweight boxing champion, has an impressive career, a loving wife and daughter, and a lavish lifestyle. However, when tragedy strikes, Billy hits rock bottom, losing his family, his house and his manager. He soon finds an unlikely savior in Tick Willis, a former fighter who trains the city's toughest amateur boxers. With his future on the line, Hope fights to reclaim the trust of those he loves the most.
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Cast
- Jake GyllenhaalBilly 'The Great' Hope
- Rachel McAdamsMaureen Hope
- Forest WhitakerTitus 'Tick' Wills
- Oona LaurenceLeila Hope
- 50 CentJordan Mains
- Skylan BrooksHoppy
- Naomie HarrisAngela Rivera
- Victor OrtizRamone
- Beau KnappJon Jon
- Miguel GómezMiguel 'Magic' Escobar
Recommendations
- 88
Observer
What makes this one different is the dedication, commitment and sincerity the star brings to every aspect of the role. This is a pugilist with a heart. - 77
TheWrap
Southpaw is so simultaneously entertaining and unsurprising that it could go straight to ESPN Classic, but if these are the extremes it takes for certain people to notice that, hey, that guy from “Bubble Boy” has turned into a heck of an actor, then so be it. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
Southpaw sticks to tried-and-tested genre rules, yet an edgy cast — led by formidable leading man Jake Gyllenhaal — keeps the story in sharp focus. - 60
Total Film
The script keeps its gloves on but Gyllenhaal gives his all, notching up one of his very best performances. - 50
Screen Daily
Jake Gyllenhaal brings likeability and commitment to a raw role, but despite a strong supporting cast director Antoine Fuqua never quite transcends the proceedings’ gritty, melodramatic blandness. A lot of care, heart and craft have been thrown at awfully familiar material. - 50
Variety
The undeniable intensity of Gyllenhaal’s bulked-up, Method-mumbling performance may leave you feeling more pummeled than convinced in this heavy-handed tale of redemption, in which director Antoine Fuqua once more demonstrates his fascination with codes of masculine aggression, extreme violence and not much else. - 50
Movie Nation
The story arc is entirely too familiar to sustain the two-hours-plus length, the violence, gore and language are the only elements that lift it from the weepy melodrama that Southpaw wants to be into “Raging Bull” territory. - 50
IndieWire
Gyllenhaal's alarmingly effective presence is enough to act circles around the soapy narrative of a fallen athlete's comeback so tightly that it crumbles in the very first act.
