Shadowboxer :: Wessex Scene Online

Shadowboxer

2nd May 2007
Kate Davies

About this film

Title	Shadowboxer
Director	Lee Daniels
Release Date	14 July 2006
Certificate
Genres	Crime, Drama, Thriller
Our Rating	2.0/5.0

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More by Kate Davies

After heading down to the Portswood Blockbuster of an evening, I found myself, like many others I’m sure, drawn to the great mass of Shadowboxer DVDs, lining up the back wall.

Fool that I am, I assumed, like many a fool before me, that something starring she of recent Oscar-success and Cuba Gooding Jr must be good. It must be! To hell that I had no recollection of it going to cinema, the story seemed a bit ropey, the cover was decidedly dodge, and the excerpts of past reviews printed on the box were worryingly ambiguous. Never mind the dubious tagline; "Feeling Protected Is Very Seductive". After all, it’s Dame Helen Mirren! Surely the old girl won’t let us down…?

Oh, Dame Helen, Dame Helen. Why oh why, did the Oscar-winning lovely ever agree to star in this low-rent "psychological thriller"? Ok, so this was sometime before The Queen; but a British national treasure should really know better. As for Cuba Gooding Jr, despite the fact he only has about 10 lines in the films duration, well, he is far from blameless either.

Anyway, lets hasten onto the plot of this dazzling cinematic experience; Rose (Mirren), a female assassin, is diagnosed with terminal cancer when she decides to carry out one final killing, assisted by lover and also stepson, Mickey (Gooding Jr). But, the matter of the heavily pregnant hit (Ferlito) going into labour just as their about to take her out pulls on Rose’s heart-strings and tugs at her morals. They deliver the bambino, and make off into the night, mother and baby in tow, propelling them all into a life on the run. There are gangsters, gratuitous scenes of a sexual nature, a children’s birthday party and a rare and elusive shot of male-frontal nudity. Oh ladies, try to contain your excitement, please. It also includes some hilarious cameos (though whether this was the intended effect is debatable) by Macy Gray and that kid from Third Rock from the Sun.

There are two features of this film that you can’t fail to miss; it’s mighty big on the sex and violence. It deserves some dubious honour for featuring the most disturbing sex scene you will ever come across, involving a soft-focus colour-enhanced camera shot of Rose and Mickey "making love" under some trees in a forest with bright pink blossom floating softly down from above, while birds sing in the trees, and leaves rustle underfoot, topped off with the occasional flashback to the pairs romantic meeting (Rose winks at seven-year old Mickey at his mothers funeral. I kid you not). Words cannot do justice to this assault on the eyes and ears. See it to believe it. At the other end of the scale, it also features a man being anally assaulted with a pool cue. The humanity. It’s a film of extremes, this much is true.

The ending is predictably naff, and one would be frankly disappointed at anything less, given the sheer lunacy of events leading up to it. If there is a defence of Shadowboxer, it is that my housemates and I have not laughed this hard and this long about a film in ages. If you can manage not to be offended, it may just have you in stitches. For this alone, it may be worth a rental. But be prepared. The Queen, this is not.