Day of the Fight review – boxer sets out to beat his demons in Kubrick-referencing drama
Jack Huston's directing debut is a big-hearted, decently intended piece of work; it is well acted, less well written, an old-fashioned boxing movie, classically attired in monochrome, and set in New York in 1989 but behaving as if VJ Day hasn't happened yet. The title is an apparent nod to the one Stanley Kubrick chose for his own debut, a documentary short about a boxer's jittery, aimless mood before that evening's fight with nothing to do but wait.
There are a lot of cliches on show here, with some exasperatingly on-the-nose dialogue scenes, and important dramatic moments being revealed by rote in memory flashbacks. This is damaged middleweight ex-champ Mikey Flannigan, played by Michael Pitt, troubled by his terrible sins, preparing for a shot at the title – and, of course, a shot at redemption. Ron Perlman plays Mikey's scowling yet fatherly trainer; Nicolette Robinson is his ex-wife Jessica; Steve Buscemi is his easy-going uncle; and John Magaro is his best buddy from the neighbourhood and now a priest. Joe Pesci has a rather amazing silent scene with Pitt as Mikey's ageing and once abusive father, now in a care home having evidently suffered a stroke, with whom Mikey has to have some kind of painful reckoning before getting back into the ring.
The film probably pays its way with that one scene, and Pesci's presence underscores the movie's indebtedness to Scorsese's Raging Bull and at one remove therefore to Kazan's On the Waterfront, although unlike the Kubrick, Scorsese and Kazan films, Day of the Fight isn't about two brothers. It feels like a student film in many ways though Huston (grandson of John) is a diligent and respectful student and there's nothing wrong with his work with the actors. Yet there's not enough grit in the oyster: nothing really unexpected – if we rule out Mikey's almost Oedipal and weirdly sexualised memories of his mother, in which another film-maker might have found something more challenging. Not a knockout, by any means, but a win on points.
Day of the Fight is on the Icon Film Channel from 3 February, and in UK cinemas from 7 March.
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