Southpaw

A champion boxer who knows nothing about boxing except how to take and deliver punches (Jake Gyllenhaal) loses his wife (Rachel McAdams) to gunfire, his mansion to foreclosure, his daughter (Oona Laurence) to Child Protective Services and his boxing license—all because of his own raging stupidity. Director Antoine Fuqua adorns the rampant clichés of Kurt Sutter's script with a fine veneer of gritty realism. The movie's biggest asset is Gyllenhaal's superb performance; that he manages to make this worthless subhuman moron sympathetic is just about the acting feat of the decade. It's almost enough to banish our doubts about whether this lousy father regaining custody of his daughter really counts as a happy ending. Almost. Forest Whitaker as Gyllenhaal's employer/trainer heads an expert supporting cast. J.L.