Boxer Movie Review: Cinema and boxing have always had a particular feeling, as demonstrated by the many films produced over the decades at different latitudes in which the Seventh Art has met the "noble art", bringing to the screen stories set inside and outside the ring. Meetings that are renewed year after year and that have for a few seasons now have also found space on platforms, starting with Netflix which since its first cries has hosted films or series focused on the discipline in question. The latest to join the extended family of the Big N was Boxer by Mitja Okorn, distributed by the star-spangled broadcaster starting on September 11, 2024.
Boxer is a highly derivative audiovisual product and consequently a slave incapable of breaking away from its models
In his fifth feature film, the Slovenian director and screenwriter moves to sports drama and does so with a film that, relying on classic themes and stylistic elements of the genre in question, tells the story of a promising young boxer named Jedrzej Czernecki (Eryk Kulm) who fears repeating his father's mistakes. For this reason, he escapes from communist Poland to pursue his dream of becoming a great boxer. But he encounters difficulties as an immigrant and with only his wife at his side, he soon realizes that the fight will be tougher and more complicated than he thought. After months of fighting, the boxer agrees to participate in a rigged match that will change his life forever.
As is easy to understand from reading the synopsis and its narrative and dramatic developments, Okorn's writing did not go beyond the obvious and the already seen, drawing heavily and without hesitation from references and imagery linked to the vast cinematographic literature of sports films and in particular boxing films. It is useless to list titles here because they are all too clear and obvious. This makes Boxer, regardless of the story in question and who animates it, a highly derivative audiovisual product and consequently a slave and incapable of breaking away from its models, or at least of giving a few brush strokes capable of personalizing and sowing a semblance of originality. This never happens and you don't even perceive the intention, with the author who both in the writing and framing phases does nothing but copy and paste situations, plots, and languages that add nothing to the cause and make the result predictable.
Getting lost in futile and reiterated parentheses, enjoying Boxer becomes an effort rather than a pleasure
If we focus on the script, net of stereotyped dynamics and photocopy characters, Boxer is nothing more than the design of a competitive and human parable of which we now know all the steps by heart, complete with climb, fall, and attempt to climb back up. There is the last one on duty who wants to become someone in life and in the ring and is willing to do anything to do so. The propulsive thrust leads him to lose pieces along the climb, including his affections, letting himself be swallowed up by the quicksand of self-destruction. And in the meantime, he has to face the ghosts of the past and deal with an uncomfortable father figure.
In short, nothing that hasn't already been told in similar works and stories over decades of cinema history. If then the whole thing is spread out over a timeline that goes beyond two hours, getting lost in futile and reiterated parentheses, the enjoyment becomes an effort rather than a pleasure. There is little to hold on to during the viewing, with emotionally engaging moments that can really be counted on the fingers of one hand. Too little for a film that belongs to a genre that should find its extra weapon precisely in involvement.
It's a shame that this one fires blanks even when it comes to making a change with the direction, the latter devoid of sparks and also derivative, with the filmmaker who in the scenes in the ring tries, by sticking to the boxers, to copy without even coming close to the visual impact what was done stylistically speaking by Michael Mann in Ali and before that by Martin Scorsese in Raging Bull. Despite being untouchable examples, figures like Okorn persist like kamikazes in chasing them and trying to achieve something similar.
Boxer: evaluation and conclusion
With his fifth film, Mitja Okorn moves to sports drama and does so in the most traditional and unoriginal way possible, that is, following the genre's scheme and modus operandi to the letter and referring to models and great classics of the past in which cinema and boxing met on the big screen to tell the story of a boxer. This makes Boxer a highly derivative work in terms of the story and how it is said. We witness something already seen and codified, which offers the viewer a story and protagonists whose thoughts, words, actions, and omissions we know well in advance. This makes the two hours of viewing a boring and repetitive ride on the carousel that involves and excites only in small flashes. The direction and the acting work in alternating phases, demonstrating lucidity, attitude, motivations, and noteworthy solutions only when they take a break from emulation and try to personalize their respective work. It's a shame that this happens only rarely.