Day Of The Fight Review
“They don’t make ‘em like that any more.” So they say, but in his directorial debut, Day Of The Fight, Jack Huston shows they do – just not so often. In what is something of a nod in the direction of the classics from the 50s and 60s, he takes the familiarity of a redemption story, sets it in a timeframe that the audience are never allowed to forget, and throws in a secret that his main character keeps buried deep inside.
It’s the day of “Irish Mike” Flannigan’s first bout in the boxing ring since leaving prison. He’s been away for ten years but has got himself back into shape and desperately wants to reclaim his middleweight title. At best, he has an outside chance, but that’s all he wants. Yet this isn’t a day for training and sparring. He has personal things on his mind: he needs to face demons from his past, start mending shattered relationships, find and give forgiveness and discover some redemption before his time runs out. By his own estimate, that could be by the end of the day.
MORE: CHECK OUT OUR EXCLUSIVE CHAT WITH THE FILM’S DIRECTOR, JACK HUSTON, HERE!
While the narrative treads a conventional path, make no mistake – this is not just another boxing movie. The fight itself comes towards the end of the story and is the more physical of the film’s two endings. The emphasis throughout, however, is on the emotional, with Mikey (Michael C Pitt) taking stock of his past life and trying to come to with trauma that he’s both suffered himself and inflicted on others. The latter is the harder of the two yet, as we see from early on, he is a ball of contractions, capable of damaging outbursts yet also inspiring genuine love and tenderness. Filmed in a piercing black and white that gives us a clear picture of his surroundings and living conditions, it allows us to get to know him by following him for about ten minutes at the start of the film, but without hearing him say a word. It’s an introduction that lingers.
Mikey’s redemptive journey sees him visit several people from his past, all of whom represent different aspects of his life. Portrayed as a series of cameos, Huston has saved them from being purely symbolic by his choice of actors. Ron Perlman is his trainer, John Magaro his one-time best friend and now his priest and, in a mini-masterclass of a scene, Joe Pesci is his once abusive father, now suffering from dementia and living in a care home. His illness has robbed him of his voice, yet he barely needs one as Mikey struggles to pour out his heart. Pesci’s eyes and imive face say it all. The heightened drama of the sequence is another throwback to the 50s, as is Pitt’s performance as Mikey, which gives us a glimpse of the contender Brando’s Terry Molloy in On The Waterfront could have been.
While Day Of The Fight leans towards tropes at times, the power of its story and characters makes it easy to forgive and promises much for Huston’s future in the director’s chair. It may not be a knock-out, but its heart and sincerity make sure it punches well above its weight.
★★★ 1/2
In UK cinemas from 7 March / Own it on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital from 7th April / Michael C Pitt, Nicolette Robinson, John Magaro, Steve Buscemi, Ron Perlman, Joe Pesci / Dir: Jack Huston / Icon Film Distribution / 15
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