(Rating: ☆☆ ½ out of 4)

This film is mildly recommended.

In brief: This film never lands its knock-out punch but it does go the distance.

GRADE: B-

Boxing is a grueling sport, but not as grueling as sitting through the unoriginal Southpaw, a cliché-ridden heavy-weight tale of a down-on-his-luck pugilist plugging away to make his life better. The characters are light-weight replicas of real-life people, but it's the actors, especially Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead role, who punch up this film to make it a worthy contender.

Granted, there have been some real knockouts in the cinematic history of boxing movies (Raging Bull, The Fighter, Million Dollar Baby, the original Rocky). And there have also been some god-awful ones (The Main Event, Grudge Match, all the other Rocky sequels) Southpaw falls squarely in the midsection. It's strong when it stays within the ropes, but once it leaves the arena, it's hopelessly pretentious, utterly predictable, and so heavy-handed, even with its gloves on or off.

If you have seen the film's trailer (which reveals the entire movie), you know where the film is going before the count. It's The Champ revisited, but grittier, bloodier, and supposedly more realistic, except for its nonsensical story.

As our story begins, Billy Hope (geez!) has everything: a loving wife, an adorable daughter and a lucrative boxing career. He is a wonderful guy, a champion on top of the world until (gasp!) tragedy strikes. Literally, once the Great White Hope in the boxing world, Billy falls on some hard times (of course). His road to redemption won't be easy (of course), but he will fight tooth and nail to get back on top (of course).

Jake Gyllenhaal's commitment to this part is impressive. He toned up and certainly looks like a down-on-his luck boxer who has seen the dark side too often. With his highly sculptured physique, rock-hard abs, and bruised and battered face, the actor earnestly tries to pump some life into this lifeless role. But, as written, Billy is so one-dimensional and never really amounts to a real character, more of a caricature that we have seen a zillion times in boxing movies. Blame the screenwriter, Kurt Sutter, not the actor. Rachel McAdams plays Mo, his tough but loving wife (complete with a New Yawk accent) and Oona Laurence is memorable as Leila, their daughter caught in Billy's downward spiral. Forest Whitaker adds some interest in his supporting role as Tick Willis, Billy's loyal manager and conscience. Moviegoers can revel in his few dramatic moments whenever he is on the screen. Rounding out the cast is 50 Cents as Jordan Mains, his money-hungry promoter and Miguel Gomez playing Magic Escobar, his villainous opponent. (Hey, what is it with these odd names anyway?)

While the dialog has an authentic grittiness, the plot becomes more and more absurd in its predictability, As multiple obstacles quickly begin to mount in the most of illogical ways against our hero, who should be renamed Billy Hopeless, the film starts to become a parody of itself. Director Antoine Fuqua doesn't help matters with his overt foreshadowing of events and his penchant for soap opera melodramatics. He stages the boxing scenes with lots of hand-held in-your-face close-ups and handles these sequences with some verve. But his vision of the human drama outside the ring is so labored and overdone. The manipulative ending offers no surprises and the overall result is a bit of a yawn.

Southpaw is a dumb palooka of a movie. Even before the first punch is thrown, the contrived plot and its superficial characters kayo the film. But Gyllenhaal's impassioned performance is reason enough to see this film.