Fighting words

>>Resurrecting the Champ is a solid yet
imperfect film about boxing and writing

by JEFFREY MALECKI

The boxer and the writer occupy similar positions in American cinema. Both seem to find perennial expression onscreen, probably because they feed into the mythology of the tenacious and highly individualistic American type. Yes America, we get it. You’re rugged and good-looking. Usually, however, the focus is on only one of these professions. But Resurrecting the Champ, the latest addition to this tradition, revolves around a symbiotic relationship that develops between a journalist and a pugilist.

Loosely based on an intriguing true story, Champ centres around Erik Kernan (Josh Hartnett), an ambitious and struggling sports writer (aren’t they all?), who chances upon a career-making piece about a former boxer who’s long been thought dead. However, ex-heavyweight contender Bob Satterfield (Samuel L. Jackson) is now living on the streets of Denver, collecting bottles and eating in soup kitchens. These two feed off each other, one for a career, the other for lost fame, as Kernan puts the story together.

The father figure looms large for both of these men, and their struggles are pleasantly understated. Satterfield is cryptic about his absentee pa, and while Erik’s dad looms large in his professional life, his only real connection is the crackled words on the cassettes of his father’s old boxing radio reports. These characters, although off-screen, haunt the film nicely.

Unfortunately, there are two tales, and you’re always more interested in the story of the ex-boxer. Primarily because of his excellent portrayal by Jackson, his voice a gravelly rasp with an impish tinge, his face creased and wizened, hiding many secrets. Hartnett, on the other hand, merely exists on the screen, delivering predictable and wooden lines as he rises to fame. And while his relationship with Satterfield is nice and fleshy, his ties with his wife and son are hollow by comparison—the six-year-old is a cloying robot with a blond mop.

That said, however, the acting only slightly sullies the movie, as the story is compelling and twisty, the script is decent and Alan Alda is in it (need I say more?). Resurrecting the Champ is engaging without being heavy-handed.

Resurrecting the Champ opens
this Friday, Aug. 24

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