Shadowboxer | DVD Review

When producer Lee Daniels (Monster’s Ball, The Woodsman) showed this film, his directorial debut, at the Toronto International Film Festival a couple of years ago and no distributors picked it up, he distributed it himself. After having played in a few theaters for a limited run, we now get to squirm over the subject matter in the comfort of our own homes via the DVD release. You see, Shadowboxer is a film that throws everything at you in a seeming effort to shock the viewer. You have violence, nudity, sex, interracial affairs, quasi-incest, and much more in this story of hitman Mikey (Cuba Gooding, Jr., Jerry Maguire, Boyz n the Hood) and his dying-of-cancer stepmother Rose (Helen Mirren, The Queen), who also happens to be his lover. They get hired by an underworld kingpin to kill his wife Vickie, who is nine months pregnant (which the two don’t know yet, not until they are actually aiming their guns at her). She immediately goes into labour, with Rose delivering the baby herself. Rose decides that this is her one chance at redemption and saves the young bride and her child, advising Mikey that “we’re keeping them.”

Despite the fact that there’s so much going on in this story, nothing really happens. However, Daniels’ intense visuals and the performances from the entire cast are more than enough to keep the mish-mash of a plot afloat. Of particular note are Gooding, Jr. as Mikey and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Brick, TV’s 3rd Rock From the Sun) as a shady doctor; Stephen Dorff (City of Industry, Blade) doesn’t overdo it in his scenery-chewing turn as the evil kingpin. And even a casting that would make you wonder what they were thinking turns out to be perfect, as pop singer Macy Gray shines as Vickie’s best friend.

This is truly an actor’s film, in that the director has given his cast free reign to inhabit their characters, not just reading lines but acting with their bodies and facial expressions. Admittedly, the shock value of the material and specific moments in Shadowboxer may offend or turn off some viewers, but they’d be missing out on what makes this a good film in spite of itself: the acting, especially Gooding, Jr.. It’s enough to almost make you forget Snow Dogs and Boat Trip.

The disc is slim on extra features. You get a feature commentary from Daniels and Gooding, Jr. Daniels doesn’t do much more than pat himself on the back for his innovation, but Gooding, Jr. offers some inside stories on making the film and interacting with his co-stars offscreen.
There’s a short making-of featurette that is mostly taken up by the director’s struggle with the producers over his need to have a zebra in the film despite the strain on the budget it would cause, and Daniels’ subsequent gloating over having his vision realized.

While Shadowboxer‘s story is rather thin, even with everything that’s been thrown in for shock value, it is still a film worth watching at least once for the performances of the cast. It’s a testament to their abilities that they were able to shine through the shoddy material they’d been given.

Movie rating – 3

Disc Rating – 1.5