Jim Sheridan is pretty much the go-to guy when it comes to movies about Ireland. The Dublin-born director started things off with the brilliant My Left Foot, establishing a working relationship with Daniel Day-Lewis at the outset. The two would collaborate again with 1993’s In the Name of the Father. Their third collaboration, The Boxer, stands as a bleak and desolate piece about change and the hunger for peace in Ireland.
Day-Lewis is Danny Flynn, a member of the IRA with a promising boxing career. His life was put on hold when he was imprisoned at the age of 18 for his terrorist associations. The film picks up with Flynn finally leaving prison after 14 years. He refused to name his fellow IRA men, increasing the length of his prison term. Upon his release, Flynn is sent into a community that is attempting to negotiate peace with the British. Head IRA man Joe Hamill (Brian Cox) is trying to work out a peace agreement.
The process is far from easy, though, and Hamill has his hands full with various members of the IRA. He especially struggles with a militant faction of the group, led by Harry (Gerard McSorley). Flynn, meanwhile, rekindles a past relationship with Maggie (Emily Watson) despite her marriage to another imprisoned IRA member. They embark on a dangerous relationship, with the IRA watching their every move and threatening death for any man caught having an affair with a prisoner’s wife.
Flynn has no interest in the activities of the IRA, having long ago paid his debts and spent his energy on the “cause.” He just wants to fight and pick up his tattered boxing career, so he joins with his old manager Ike (Ken Stott) and reopens a local gym for young boxers to train. Flynn’s sense for “getting on with it” soon becomes a motivating factor for many in the community and boxing becomes an outlet for much of the pain and violence of the past. The gym is opened for both Protestants and Catholics, but it soon becomes a lightning rod for Harry’s militancy.
The fights are great fun to watch, presenting with a sort of gritty hope. Day-Lewis was trained by Barry McGuigan (the Clones Cyclone) and it shows. He is in great shape for the picture, adding a sense of realism and explosiveness to his normally subdued character. His Danny Flynn speaks in hushed tones, for the most part, choosing his words carefully even when in the presence of the love of his live. He is reserved and appears to have learned his lessons well, so the boxing becomes the real fountain of any lingering angst.
Sheridan’s movie is very carefully constructed and very bleak, very gray. The dialogue is often delivered softly and secretly, as though there is always someone watching. Sheridan effectively captures the tone of uncertainty, spreading his story out as though sudden moments of violence can disrupt the whole damn thing. We get the sense that the love affair, the fighting, and the violence in the streets are all interconnected.
The Boxer is not a perfect motion picture. It sometimes struggles with its own ambition, as though it weighs out the importance of each scene and is forced into making a choice. Sometimes the boxing can feel like a superfluous act, as though the film’s three fights really aren’t needed to develop the character of Danny Flynn. Nevertheless, Sheridan does attempt to instil the scenes with importance. One fight that ends with Flynn showing mercy on his opponent serves to showcase the true nature of this changed man.
The Boxer is an effective, bleak narrative that tells an important story of tentative peace and those who act against it for nothing but their own interests. It is a story of both selfishness and selfless love. It is well-acted, well-directed, and well-scored by Gavin Friday.
8.4/10
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