Movie Review: Shadowboxer

By Ronald Wilkinson Jul 21, 2006, 11:58 GMT

Shadowboxer is an emotionally-charged, full-throttle noir, which delves deep into the harsh underworld of organized crime and uncovers the complex lives of trained assassins, Mikey (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and Rose (Helen Mirren).  But when a brutal crime boss wants his wife dead, Rose has a change of heart when they find her pregnant. And so, the three begin a harrowing life on the run. Driven by fierce love, Rose and ...more

Lee Daniels’ 'Shadowboxer' casts Helen Mirren and Cuba Gooding Jr. as a surrogate mother/son team of murderers-for-hire trying to get past that one last job.

At least it’s that one last job for Rose (Mirren) who is dying of cancer and suffering from periodic paralyzing seizures of pain.  Apparently she is having second thoughts on her death bed and is thinking of going straight for the last few months of her life.

If this sounds familiar, it is, and this flick is too little too late to get over the fact that the plot is just plain worn out. 

Actually the murderers-for-hire are not called that in the film, they are, rather, “trained assassins” (Is there any such thing as untrained assassins?).

One of the problems with the hired-killer-with-a-heart plot is that it is simply hard to swallow.  If a human being is sufficiently spiritually and emotionally dispersed as to become a serial killer for hire, are we to believe that they will spontaneously pull out of that condition? 

If so, it had better be a good screenplay.  This one is not good enough.

The best part of the film is the similarity of the young Mikey (Gooding) plus old Rose coupling to the Ruth Gordon / Bud Cort match-up in the great ‘Harold and Maude.’

Although this similarity was probably not what writer William Lipz had in mind, there is something in Daniels’ direction that leads that way.  Then again, considering the ferocious nature of their lives perhaps a similarity to Ma Barker and her sons is more in order. 

But neither Gooding nor Mirren can summon up the hopeless, helpless and simply insane looks of, say, a Cagney / Mom coupling in ’White Heat’ (1949).  The pathetic feeling just isn’t there.

But getting back to the trained assassins, business is going well. They seem to be knocking someone off every couple of weeks with the usual efficiency we have come to appreciate in modern versions of the white collar pro murderer.

They always know exactly where the victim is, what they look like and have the perfect plan.  Perhaps everyone who watches a snuff film that contains anything this simplistic should be forced to view ‘Munich’ both before and after just to set the record straight.  It can’t be that easy and we are tired of seeing it so-portrayed. 

The plot thickens when they get soft and decide to go straight. Bosses are displeased. Words are exchanged. The usual cat and mouse games ensues and the result is a watchable movie that keeps us entertained with well directed gunplay and thug scenes but little more. 

The main problem with sustaining the plot through to the end is that the more we see of Gooding the less we accept him as a killer, reformed or otherwise.  Actors like Christopher Walken seem to fall into this mold naturally.

And John Travolta did it well enough in ‘Pulp Fiction.’  But Gooding is just too nice.  He can’t bring a psycho look to that baby-face no matter how many muscles he packs on elsewhere. 

Double Cannes Best-Actress winner Mirren is equally handicapped in overcoming her hit performance in ‘Calendar Girls.’ Pitted against an unreasonable screenplay where psychos suddenly grow consciences she is not entirely to blame.

The Philly filming is well done and provides an appropriately dreary back-drop for mislead lives looking for escape. That is not intended as a reflection on that fine city, by the way, and the film has included a most appropriate cameo for Pat’s King of Steaks on the South Side, 1930 inventor of the Philly Cheese Steak sandwich now imitated world wide (here’s only one real cheese steak: chopped steak, onions and Cheese-Wiz---still politically incorrect and loving it).

All-in-all, an entertaining directorial debut for Lee Daniels but no notch in the handle for either Gooding or Mirren who could have been put to better use.

Limited release July 21st before larger roll out.  MPAA rated R  for strong graphic violence and sexuality, nudity, language and some drug use.