THE STORY – Mikey, a former champion boxer, prepares for his first fight after prison. He revisits his past, reconnects with close ones, and seeks redemption. As he gets ready for this crucial fight, Mikey tries to make amends.
THE CAST – Michael Pitt, Nicolette Robinson, John Magaro, Steve Buscemi, Ron Perlman & Joe Pesci
THE TEAM – Jack Huston (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 108 Minutes
Ever since cinema’s earliest days, filmmakers have been obsessed with the boxing ring. From Alfred Hitchcock’s early silent “The Ring” to 1931’s “The Champ” – which won an Oscar for Wallace Beery’s lead performance – to 1976’s Best Picture winner “Rocky” and the franchise that followed, boxing is one of cinema’s favorite sports. It’s little surprise, then, that actor Jack Huston – grandson of legendary director John Huston – would turn to boxing as the subject for his first feature film. It’s a bit more of a surprise that “Day of the Fight” isn’t so much a boxing film as it is a film about a boxer, taking place entirely during the day leading up to the big fight. This concept allows for a tour de force performance in the lead role, and Michael Pitt delivers on that, even if other aspects of the film betray Huston’s inexperience as a writer/director.
Pitt is “Irish” Mike Flannigan, a former boxing champ with a past so tortured that it includes a dead mother, an abusive father, and alcoholism so bad that it caused an accident that not only put him in jail for killing a young boy but also gave him an aneurysm that will likely kill him if he fights again. This, naturally, is what he plans on doing. But first, he must pay a visit to each of the most important people in his life to find a measure of forgiveness and grace, just in case this is his last day. Huston keeps the pace of the film leisurely, giving the actors plenty of space to build compelling characters. Every performer fully invests their humanity into their performances, adding rich texture to Mike’s story. Huston’s Dialogue may tend toward the simplistic, but the ideas at play with each character resonate thanks to the compelling performances and chemistry on display.
Among the ensemble, Nicolette Robinson is a particular standout as Mike’s baby mama, Jessica, who still loves Mike even though the hurt she endured during his worst days has rendered her unable to fully trust him. Seeing him again obviously throws her for a loop, but how Robinson puts up her guard and slowly lets it melt away feels instantly recognizable and true to life. John Magaro is a charming presence as an old friend of Mike’s who’s now an only-in-New-York-style priest who dispenses meaningful spiritual advice but still bets on fights. Ron Perlman and Steve Buscemi, perfectly cast as Mike’s trainer and construction business owner uncle, respectively, give exactly the performances you’d expect with an added layer of gritty warmth that further fleshes out the world of the film. As Mike’s barely conscious father, Joe Pesci doesn’t have much to do, but the amount of emotion he’s able to convey with hardly any movement and no dialogue is astonishing, yet another reminder that he’s one of the greats.
The film rests almost entirely on Pitt’s shoulders, though, and he carries it ably. The actor’s off-kilter charm perfectly matches his loping physicality, leaving the audience unsure of Mike’s capability as a boxer until he steps foot in the ring. While Pitt’s physical work is undoubtedly impressive, his multifaceted work outside the ring really sings. He modulates his performance beautifully while Mike works through the complicated emotions of his encounters, providing powerful moments of tension and release as Mike tries to say what he needs to say, failing as often as he succeeds. While Huston’s dialogue is far from profound, it feels true to the character, and Pitt invests the clichés with such deep feelings that you root for Mike all the way through. It’s a beautiful mixture of brute force and passionate grace that stands with the great cinematic boxers of films past.
Huston’s sensitive direction is full of lovely little grace notes that speak to what a thoughtful artist he is. Peter Simonite’s black-and-white cinematography gives the 1989-set film a timeless quality, and the use of extremely desaturated color for flashbacks provides them with the feeling of a faded photograph, somehow both more and less real than the present. The location shooting finds the beauty in the grime of New York City’s industrial neighborhoods, as well as Mike’s run-down apartment, which Huston fills with color in a gorgeous final sequence representing his hopes for the future. The film’s ambiguous last scenes leave Mike’s future somewhat in doubt, but the journey truly is the destination here, and Huston makes that journey involving all the way through. When we get to the big fight, Huston builds tension effectively by cutting between Mike and his friends watching. As the fight progresses, the shot scales and editing scheme get tighter until we’re watching faces and boxing gloves fly directly at us. It’s incredibly smart filmmaking that maximizes the limited resources available. Yes, very little of what’s onscreen is particularly groundbreaking or sophisticated, but it’s well-assembled and effective, thanks to the combination of smarts and heart on both sides of the camera. While “Day of the Fight” is no classic, it’s a welcome standout in the world of boxing films and a promising debut for Jack Huston behind the camera.
