Against the Ropes
Directed by: Charles Dutton
Starring: Meg Ryan, Omar Epps, Charles Dutton, Tony Shalhoub, Joe Cortese, Kerry Washington
Rated: PG-13 for crude language, violence, brief sensuality and some drug material.
Parental Notes: Although the boxing sequences in this picture may be a bit intense for some youngsters, this film should be fine for most preteens. It also provides a positive female role model, one who learns from her mistakes and isn’t too proud to say she’s sorry.
“You’re pretty and you’re tough,” boxer Ray-Ray Kallen tells his niece Jackie, “and pretty tough can do anything.” As played by Meg Ryan, Jackie is definitely pretty and tough, and once she has faith in herself she can indeed do just about anything. “Against the Ropes” is a fictional story inspired by the real Jackie Kallen, and although it’s fairly predictable, it’s a fun movie for those who love sports stories.
Jackie has loved the sport of boxing passionately ever since she was a child, but was always told boxing was a man’s world. She’s stayed close to the sport, working for boxing promoters and managers who are no better than she is, but letting them walk all over her. When a slimy promoter (Tony Shalhoub) offers her the contract of a junkie boxer for a dollar as a joke, she surprises everyone by taking him up on it and finding her way to an amateur with real talent, Luther Shaw (Omar Epps) along the way. She convinces an old trainer to come out of retirement and train Luther so he can make it to the top.
This is not a particularly challenging film, and like many sports movies it’s easy to spot events coming a mile away. Does anyone doubt that the scrappy underdog boxer will tire of Kallen’s grandstanding? That they’ll reconcile during his big fight and he’ll come out a winner? No. Anyone who’s seen even a couple of theses movies knows what is going to happen, but that’s not the point.
The point is to live vicariously through Jackie and Luther, to see a couple of underdogs we identify with win out in the end. It’s a thrill to watch Jackie kick behind and take names, as the saying goes, and Luther’s prowess and determination in the ring are a thrill to watch.
The actors give their roles everything, which is necessary in a film like this. We can ignore the overpolished and improbable dialog, we can put aside the predictability as long as the movie is fun to watch and the actors take it with a modicum of seriousness. Fortunately, they do. Meg Ryan has set aside her perkiness and gives Kallen a chiseled determination here under her sexy outfits and carefully mussed hair. She’s able to deliver the often cheesy dialog without sounding like she thinks it’s lame, too, which is a plus.
Epps has clearly put in some time learning about boxing, and to this unexperienced reviewer he looked very convincing in the ring. Even better, he avoids the temptation to make Luther a one-note character, and lets him have his moments of rage along with his moments of calm rationality.
It’s a thrill to see Tony Shalhoub playing the direct opposite of his character on the television show “Monk”