Day of the Fight
After serving a 10 year prison sentence for DUI manslaughter, former middleweight champion Mike Flannigan (as Michael C. Pitt) has secured another shot at the title by his old coach Stevie (Ron Perlman). But what Stevie doesn't know is that the accident has left Mike with a brain aneurysm that might cost him his life in the ring. Mike is determined to right former wrongs, though, and we will accompany him as he makes the rounds on the "Day of the Fight."
Laura's Review: B
Writer/director Jack Huston's directorial debut may tip its hand at the outset, the down and out boxer trying for one more shot at the brass ring a well worn cliche, but the film is so well acted, has so much heart and has such a stylized look that it throws a knock out punch. Back when he first began appearing in such films as "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" and "The Dreamers" in the early 2000's, I thought Michael Pitt was going to be a major star, but it never seemed to happen, perhaps by his own design. His searching, sensitive, moving performance here emphasizes just what he's had to offer all along and every supporting player adds something special as well. Cinematographer Peter Simonite's black & white digital lensing gives the film a timeless quality.
The film plays something like a tour of the ninth step of Alcoholics Anonymous' Twelve Step Program, making amends to people. We'll see Jack train in a bleakly barren apartment (to Jesus 'Sixto' Rodriguez's 'Crucify Your Mind'), then head out onto the streets of Brooklyn, first waving to his daughter Sasha (Kat Elisabeth Williams) from across the street as she heads into school. He'll head down to his uncle's (Steve Buscemi) office down at the dockyards, where some cash will be pressed on him along with his mother's ring his uncle kept in his safe, shouts of 'Irish Mike!' trailing his exit. He'll enter a meat processing plant (shades of "Rocky") and ask for Akbar (Akbar Salaam) who he'll follow next door to pawn that ring for $7K in cash, $100 of which will be left in a tip jar when he picks up coffee from Tracy (Kaili Vernoff), another old acquaintance. He'll head into a dry cleaners where he'll make a $9,600 bet with Saul (Anatol Yusef) on himself for that night's fight at 40 to 1 odds. He'll express gratitude during a stop at Stevie's Gym, his old coach affectionate and encouraging while demanding that he arrive an hour before the fight. Then the really emotional part of Mike's day begins.
After a humorous engagement with Patrick (John Magaro) in the priest's confessional, Mike will have a heart to heart with his old friend sitting in a church pew, relating how he tried to commit suicide in jail so strong is his guilt over the death of the young boy he caused. Everything that has happened to this point has felt genuine, but this conversation goes deep, the priest wearing two hats. At first Jessica (Nicolette Robinson, "Woman of the Hour"), the woman we've seen holding their child in the crumpled photograph Mike carries around, will slam the door in his face, but love clearly still remains and while walking through the neighborhood and sharing a pizza, Mike's genuine regret and sharing of a meaningful memory will break her heart, not to mention ours. We'll also learn the possible cause of Mike's turn to alcohol, his father (an unrecognizable Joe Pesci, who returns in a later role as a kind cabbie), who will be his next visit in a care home, but not before he pushes that bet receipt into Jessica's hands.
Mike's journey will continue, one meeting with a stranger on the street a bit hard to swallow, and of course he'll be late getting to Madison Square Garden, Stevie telling him off before pumping him up. Huston briefly leaves Mike to cut to Jessica at work, significantly, the only character whose life we witness outside of Mike's. Called from bartending to fill in at the piano, she'll sing the lullaby Mike had told her he loved to hear her sing, a tear rolling down her eye, before she makes her way home to call Sasha to watch her dad on TV. The fight is choreographed as punishing and brutal, Mike pushing uphill against the much younger champion.
And although we know in our bones exactly how everything is going to go down, Huston elevates his ending with cinematic magic. After a kind cabbie takes pity on the young man who to him only looks like he's been beaten up and has no money, offering some life advice along the way, Mike will walk into his apartment as if his life is flashing before his eyes, panels on either side showcasing important moments, color employed for the first time.
Huston's film has a few minor first time hiccups, an awkward edit here, an over emphasis on music there, but he's achieved what he was aiming for, a life in one day. Ben MacDiarmid's gentle, melancholy score with Irish folk wafting through is the perfect accompaniment to a small movie which deserves a big embrace.
Falling Forward Films opened "Day of the Fight" in NY and LA on 12/6/24. It expands to Boston, San Francisco, Dallas and Chicago on 12/13/24.
