Michael C. Pitt stars in a black-and-white boxing drama where the past looms large on the eve of a fighter’s comeback.
By James Verniere/Boston Movie News
In the poetic, fairytale-like boxing film “Day of the Fight,” a weary fighter and former world champion goes on a day-long quest to placate, lay to rest, and slay the ghosts, ogres, and goblins of his past. It’s a bit like Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” on the eve of a big fight.
Shot “Raging Bull”-style in black-and-white by cinematographer Peter Simonite and produced by at least one noteworthy Martin Scorsese veteran, “Day of the Fight” was written, directed, and shot in New York and New Jersey by the British actor Jack Huston (“Boardwalk Empire”), the grandson of John Huston of “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1948), “The Maltese Falcon” (1941) and “The African Queen” (1951). Huston’s grandfather was an experienced boxer who directed “Fat City” (1972), one of the most acclaimed boxing films ever, and he remained a boxing enthusiast his entire life.
You might say that his grandson has boxing in his blood. In “Day of the Fight,” “Irish” Mike Flannigan (Michael C. Pitt, “Funny Games”) has his first fight in 10 years on the undercard at New York’s legendary Madison Square Garden. We see him jabbing as he runs in the early morning of the fight. His mind wanders to past events that we see in stream-of-consciousness-like flashbacks, such as a meeting with a doctor who informs him that he has a small brain aneurysm in a “difficult place.” This plot device is a throwback to boxing movies from the past. This is boxing as a metaphor for life, and the film, like its elegiac story, is a journey to the ghosts of boxing movies past.
Mike, aka Mikey, has regrets. He regrets the dissolution of his marriage—because of his drinking—to Jessica (Nicolette Robinson, “One Night in Miami”), a singer and piano player who works in a New York City bar. He has almost no contact with his adolescent daughter Sasha (Kat Elizabeth Williams), who attends a Catholic school. Most of all, Mike regrets the night he drove drunk and killed a 9-year-old boy in a crash and was sent to prison for the crime. We are not sure when the action of the film takes place. Mike listens to tapes on his Walkman, so maybe we are in the 1980s or ’90s. Simonette’s camera craftily blows out images in the background. When we see cars, they are older sedans. Mike’s face is the film’s map and clock, and it is battered. Everything around and behind it is hazy.
Mike’s first stop is to see his uncle (Steve Buscemi, “Boardwalk Empire”), who works at the docks and gives Mike his late mother’s ring. Simonite’s handheld camera carefully follows Mike on his rounds. Mike sells the ring and places a heavy bet on his slim chances to win against the current middleweight champion. Mike visits his coach Stevie (a great Ron Perlman) and then stops by a small church and one of its confessionals to see his childhood buddy Patrick (a fine John Magaro), a priest. We learn that Mike tried to kill himself in prison but was revived like Lazarus. In a very Dickensian scene, Mike is at a cemetery, where we see the headstone of the boy he killed. In another moving scene, Pitt and Robinson make you feel the happiness Mike and Jessica felt for a fleeting moment.
“Day of the Fight” has a “Twilight Zone” vibe. Some viewers might be reminded of Ambrose Bierce’s much-anthologized 1890 short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” The film is slightly weakened by its boxing-movie twists and predictability. But it has a great cast, a dark beauty, a heart the size of the Empire State Building, and the shooting style of a born storyteller. The jewel in the film’s crown is a small, wrenching performance by Joe Pesci as Mike’s brutish musician/taxi driver father, who mistreated Mike’s mother. Although Mike adored his father, he felt that his father hated him. In a film that reeks of the past, we get into the ring with Mike, knowing how it will end and longing for something else to happen. At the bar, Jessica sings, “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?”
‘Day of the Fight’
Rating: R for language throughout, suicide, some accident images, and brief nudity.
Cast: Michael C, Pitt, Nicolette Robinson, Ron Perlman, Joe Pesci
Director: Jack Huston
Writer: Huston
Running Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes
Where to Watch: AMC Boston Common
Grade: B+
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