Hands of Stone

Writer-director Jonathan Jakubowicz unreels the story of Panamanian boxer Roberto Durán (Edgar Ramírez) and his personal and professional relationship with veteran trainer Ray Arcel (Robert De Niro). The template Jakubowicz is working from is obviously Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull (underlined by De Niro’s presence), but neither Jakubowicz’s story nor his filmmaking technique has that kind of power; the movie subsides into a pattern of rise-and-fall-and-rise-again familiar from countless boxing movies from Body and Soul to Rocky and beyond. Still, it’s well-mounted and well-acted by a cast that includes Rubén Blades as Durán’s manager, Usher Raymond IV as Sugar Ray Leonard, John Turturro as a shadowy Mafia figure and Ana de Armas as Durán’s wife (making the most of a spotty and underwritten role). J.L.