Boxing fans know that a career can be made by one fight. One solid left hook to the chin can send an up-and-comer into superstar status overnight.
However, losing a fight with such implications does exactly the opposite, and all boxers could watch their 15 minutes fade away as quickly as the blackness creeps into their eyes while they lay on the mat in the ring.
It would make a great story: to find on the street a former up-and-coming boxer whose moment of glory was stripped by one punch, a once-upon-a-time boxer who has had to resort to digging through the trash and begging for money as a result of the short career that boxing often demands: only the best fight for many years.
That is exactly what Eric Kernan (Josh Hartnett) figures when, by a chance encounter, he discovers a drunk, homeless man nicknamed Champ (Samuel L. Jackson) being beaten in an alley in the newly released “Resurrecting the Champ,” inspired by a true story. Kernan offers his help only to find that Champ is really a former professional boxer named Bob Satterfield, who at one point in his career was seen to be the next challenger for the heavyweight title belt. Kernan, whose skepticism shows, gives the bumbling old man $20 and continues home.
On Kernan’s way to work, he reveals to the audience that he is a sports beat writer for a Denver newspaper who is constantly struggling to get his irritable editor, Metz (Alan Alda), to notice his stories. What draws Kernan back to Cham is the opportunity to gain respect as a journalist by writing a feature article for a prospective new employer, enabling Kernan to get the attention he craves as a writer as well as seperate himself from the eyes of Metz.
In a move of improvisation and ignorance, Kernan pitches the story of the former boxer and his current state to the editor of the nwspaper’s magazine and his potential boss, Whitley (David Paymer), with the title “Resurrecting the Champ.” The only problem is, Bob Satterfield is rumored to have been dead for 20 years.
Champ recalls to Kernan his younger days as an up-and-comer through interviews, conducted mostly with food or drinking somehow involved, over the span of a few weeks. All the while, Kernan keeps his editor Metz in the dark on the story, ensuring that the article will be published in the magazine instead of the less-prestigious sports section.
Samuel L. Jackson plays Champ brilliantly against his usually typecast role as a cool, strong and powerful main character who delivers loud, unabashed punchlines. Instead, Jackson leaves his own personality at the door and lets Champ’s character come into his own, playing the role best when he isn’t speaking and letting the audience get to know Champ through his dirty, wrinkly and disheveled appearance.
The moments where Champ is inattentive, obviously thinking back on his life, gain sympathy for the character much more than any spoken line would.
Jackson’s screen time is a relief from the sometimes dry Hartnett, who isn’t bad, but isn’t necessarily great either. His acting does exactly what it needs to do, but Hartnett never takes his character to the next level. Perhaps the most surprising acting job comes from 8-year-old Dakota Goya as Teddy, Kernan’s son. Instead of dragging the movie like many child actors do, Goya manages to make his character extremely believable as well as one of the most likable, portraying perfectly every young boy’s struggle of finding that his father isn’t the superhero he thinks he is.
At the helm of the film is director Rod Lurie, who understands that flashy camera angles, huge stunts and fast editing aren’t needed to make a great movie. He does an excellent job of getting his actors to bring their characters alive and lets the script visualize itself nicely.
Most importantly, Lurie is highly aware of the pacing of the film so that it is never too slow or too fast. However, as a result, the film doesn’t do anything visually incredible, nor is the soundtrack something to remember, which makes the film somewhat mediocre in its delivery of the story.
Overall, “Resurrecting the Champ” isn’t a bad movie. Its script is original, its acting is superb and the film flows quite nicely. What brings the film down the most is its average delivery, which Lurie trades off in order for the story to become the main focus.
There are no concrete heroes or villains, which is part of the charm of the movie; when the lights come up in the theater, what is left is a solid story with memorable characters. “Resurrecting the Champ” isn’t a knockout, but it still packs a punch.
