SHADOWBOXER Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Teton Films
Grade: B+
Directed by: Lee Daniels
Written By: William Lipz
Cast: Cuba Gooding Jr., Helen Mirren, Stephen Dorff, Joseph
Gordon-Levitt, Mo’nique Imes, Macy Gray, Shaun Brewington,
Wes Bentley, Eva Mendes, Jennifer Quanz, Vanessa Ferlito
Screened at: Dolby 88, NYC, 7/5/06
Opens: July 21, 2006 As I recall, as recently as 1948, actors were not allowed to use the words “pregnant” and “virgin” in a commercial movie. The pendulum has swung the other way. Sex is in-your-face and violence is graphic. A few taboos seem to remain in mainstream movies. Incestual relationships are few and far between, and even overt sex between couples of different races is shunned. “Shadowboxer” pushes the envelope, even by today’s standards. A relationship between a black man and his white stepmother, the former about twenty years younger than the latter, is the most conspicuous aspect, nor does director Lee Daniels, working with William Lipz’s script, shy away from introducing both as contract killers. A white doctor is caught in flagrante by his lover, a large-boned black nurse. In one violent scene, a man gets a finger sliced off and tossed into the wastebasket, and that’s for starters. In another, a man, discovered to have had an affair with a gangster’s wife, is tied stomach down to a pool table, the eight-ball stuffed into his mouth. His trousers are pulled down, while the betrayed husband takes a shot at the ball–but not in anything like a direct way. Director Daniels pays homage to the outre scenes of “Pulp Fiction” while at the same time he parodies the crime genre, though if you look carefully at the characters, you don’t see a hint that any are winking at us in the audience. “Shadowboxer,” introduced to a sophisticated audience last year at the Toronto Film Festival, contrasts the beauty of a sunlit, verdant landscape with the ugly deeds of violent criminals. The odd couple are Mikey (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) and his stepmom, Rose (Helen Mirren). The two are contract killers, in the biz strictly for the money. For his part Mikey is shown in flashbacks as a kid of about ten who watches as his own father is shot dead by the woman who became his stepmother, while his dad, who had killed the boy’s mother, is delivering severe blows to the boy with his belt. Years later, the boy and the older woman become lovers, but if that’s not enough to push the envelope, the woman is dying of cancer–given morphine buy a doctor (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who from time to time is called in by the mob to fix up their wounded. Lives change when Rose and Mikey refuse to kill Vickie (Vanessa Ferlito), because the latter is pregnant, but wait, that’s not all. Vickie’s water breaks just in time to turn away thoughts of murder by the two killers, who then disguise her and take her under their wing to protect her from her husband, Clayton (Stephen Dorff). If this sounds operatic to you, you can’t be blamed. This is the sort of melodrama that in principle is followed by the soaps, albeit without the pronounced differences of age, race and gender, and even body weight. The movie works by keeping the audience just short of laughing at the glorious mess and by the histrionics of Stephen Dorff, who is bound to be looked at as the most vicious criminal you’ll see in the arthouse theaters this year. Rated R. 101 minutes 2006 by Harvey Karten
harveycritic@cs.com Member: NY Film Critics Online | 
