In what may be the year's darkest film, Jake Gyllenhaal delivers a heavy-hitting lead performance as boxer Billy Hope, but is overmatched by the dull, depressing plot. At 124 minutes, and featuring only a few brief fight sequences, the movie is overlong and exists more as a family drama exploring a series of personal crises in the main character's life. From losing his wife in a shooting that he catalyzed, to his resultant substance abuse, and the ultimate loss of his career and custody of his daughter, we see Hope's full descent into personal Hell - doing so just isn't very enjoyable.

It's not until the third act that the great Forest Whitaker even shows up as a grizzled boxing trainer and Hope's last chance at rebuilding his collapsed life. Even this would-be inspirational storyline deals with domestic battery against a child, and otherwise follows traditional boxing movie formula. In short, the film alternates between well-worn genre tropes and all-too-real themes of tragedy for a product that feels didactic in its self-seriousness.

Director Antoine Fuqua, an adept stager of action with a roller-coast career in terms of his movies' quality, misfires here with a shot at would-be oscar fodder. Southpaw also feels out of place as a summer release, failing to deliver even the memorable boxing bouts that might have justified all of the heightened drama. However, young actress Oona Laurence, as Hope's daughter, holds her own in these emotional scenes, going toe-to-toe with a physically imposing Gyllenhaal. Writer Kurt Sutter was clearly in a bleak place when he penned this one, the term sweet science just doesn't apply here.

Final Grade: C | 74/100 | ★½