"Ropes" Ending Puts Picture Down For the Count

Only for a moment, though, for this scene is so wrongheaded, so ineptly staged and set up, that one moment of sparkly can’t help but fade in a mess of cliché and ham-handed hokum. It’s an insanely ponderous and almost insulting sequence, stopping the movie cold and forcing the viewer to scratch their head in utter disbelief. It’s like a scene out of a bad parody, not something you would expect in a supposedly hard-hitting sports-themed dramedy.

It’s a shame, really, for I was kind of going with “Against the Ropes” much of the way through. Sure, this fictionalized take and the life of famed boxing promoter Jackie Kallen (Ryan) is a thin and obvious fairy tale that doesn’t go anywhere new or extraordinary. Yet, it still has a bouncy joviality and infectious fighting spirit that is just good enough to almost win over even the most jaded viewer. But it is so filled with sequences every bit as bad as the one above that any goodwill stored up by scenes that do work evaporate like water boiling on a stove. It’s a waste of talent and time, and not only that of the actors, but the audience’s as well.

Directed by actor Charles S. Dutton, “Against the Ropes” is mainly about the relationship between boxing devotee Kallen and her relationship with Luther Shaw (Omar Epps), a young hot shot who just might have what it takes to be a champion. After buying the rights to a different boxer for a dollar from flamboyant promoter Sam LaRocca (Tony Shalhoub), Kallen discovers her young protégé beating the snot out of her prizefighter over some unpaid narcotic bills. Noticing skills underneath the enforcer façade, she convinces Luther to let her turn him into a legit boxer, a friendship made under the thunder of fisticuffs is quickly forged.

Throw in Dutton as aging trainer Felix Reynolds and Tim Daly as ace Cleveland sports reporter Gaven Ross a Joe Cortese as Kallen’s Cleveland Coliseum boss Irving Abel, all the makings for your typical underdog sports story are firmly in place. In Cheryl Edwards extremely fictionalized take on the Kallen mystique, noting that you don’t expect to happen happens, all the pieces of the puzzle fitting together like a two-year-old’s remedial jigsaw puzzle.

Luckily, the movie’s three main stars almost save the day. The relationship between Epps and Kallen is refreshingly anachronistic, and the mutual respect the slowly develops between them is at times touchingly beautiful. That said, while it is nice to see Ryan playing against her squeaky clean bubble gum image for the second time in as many pictures (Jane Campion’s “In the Cut” being the other), her Midwestern accent is enough to grate teeth much of the time. But she’s got the look down and strides through the picture with a confident demeanor that deftly fits the role.

It is Epps and Dutton that really shine, however. The former, glistening with sweat and his body rippling with macho menace, really gets into playing Luther, showing shades to this slightly obtuse character that are surprisingly poignant. It’s obvious the “Love & Basketball” actor likes the role, giving him depth and passion that the movie just feeds off of for much of its running time. Dutton, meanwhile, steals the show. A hobbled veteran of too many fights and too much drama, the stroke surviving Reynolds has no wish to enter into the world of boxing once again. Yet, he comes alive watching Luther, each punch in the sparring ring, every beadle of perspiration hitting the canvas, more than enough to awaken this sleeping giant into a master modern manipulator of the human psyche.

If only Dutton the director performed as strongly as Dutton the actor. In all honestly, it isn’t like the guy doesn’t know how to make an affecting feature. His forays into cable with both “First Time Felon” and “The Corner” are HBO high-water marks. Skillfully made, expertly crafted, those two showed the director has what it takes to make quality films. Yet, “Against the Ropes” is a mess. The boxing scenes are a mess, there isn’t a moment of drama or suspense in the ring, and all the movie’s dramatic moments are telegraphed as if by telephoto lens. Really, as much as I’m picking it to pieces it is amazing I have any affinity for the picture at all.

I do, though, and that is because when it works, “Against the Ropes” sparkles to life in ways that just sing. In all honesty, there is a moment in the film where, had it ended there, I’d be talking right now about how stupendously entertaining this picture is. With Ryan walking slowly into a crowded darkness, Epps rising to take his bows in the ring, I was sure had everything come to close just at the moment things would be right with the world – at least as far as this motion picture is concerned. But it didn’t, and all that good feeling just slips away into unabashed disbelief as Dutton lurches on to a conclusion of dumfounded insufferablity.