December 16, 2021
Jackie Justice (Halle Berry) was once a top tier MMA fighter. 4 years ago, faced with a opponent she was not prepared for, she decided to tap out and forfeit the brutal fight and got publicly ridiculed for it. Since then, she lived a down-and-out life with her incompetent manager/ boyfriend, earning a meager living as a cleaning woman.
One day, she was offered a chance to get back to professional fighting by promoter Immaculate (Shamier Anderson), introducing her to strict methodical trainer Buddhakhan (Shiela Atim). Meanwhile, Jackie was unexpected reunited with her estranged 6-year old son Manny (Danny Boyd, Jr.) when his father, Jackie's ex-boyfriend, died in a shootout.
Only 30 minutes into the film, you already get a sense of how the next hour and a half of this film was going to go. Career-wise, Jackie was clearly getting a major opportunity to crawl her way out of the desperate situation she got herself into. On a personal level, she was getting a chance to finally become a mother to a son she never met before. How will she fare?
Ever since she won her Best Actress Oscar for "Monster's Ball" (2002), Halle Berry had been struggling to play another role to prove her worth as a serious actress once again. This role as Jackie Justice ticked all the right boxes to bring her back into awards contention, and Berry at 55 certainly poured everything she had into this -- physically and emotionally. For additional commitment, this film is also her directorial debut.
The story gave Jackie obstacles she needed to overcome -- lousy partner Desi (Adan Canto), negligent mother Angel (Adriane Lenox), and above all, her own inner demons. There are heartwarming scenes trying to connect with her son, who had been traumatized into silence since his father's death. There was an LGBT angle with her butch philosopher of a trainer.
Like similar films in the sports genre, there was the requisite training montage and the pain she had to endure. There was even a little reference to "Rocky" when she jogged out of the boxing venue in a training suit with her arms raised up punching the sky. Of course, the culmination of all this was the big fight against Lady Killer (Valentina Shevchenko).
That 5-round championship match went through all the usual dramatic tropes of such grand finales in sports films. There a powerful first round by Lady Killer and underdog Jackie's Herculean efforts to come from behind to even things up. After the announcement of the winner, there was an acknowledgement by the appreciative crowd. Then again, you've probably already seen all this coming from the start. 6/10.
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