Shadowboxer
July. 14,2006 RMikey and Rose are professional assassins. They are also lovers, and once upon a time Rose also knew Mikey's father. During an elaborate hit job for a malicious gangster, Rose fails to kill the main target, the gangster's pregnant girlfriend. Instead, she delivers her baby and convinces Mikey to help her protect them both. As Rose weakens from cancer, Mikey becomes breadwinner for this unusual family. But tranquility will not last.
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Reviews
ridiculous rating
Best movie ever!
Absolutely brilliant
Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
Aging contract killer Rose (Helen Mirren) is a terminally sick with cancer. Her stepson and lover Mikey (Cuba Gooding Jr.) aids her in her line of work, silently dedicated to the woman. During their last joint kill for mafia kingpin Clayton (played ruthlessly by Stephen Dorff) Rose finds herself unable to assassinate his pregnant wife and instead decides to assimilate her into her dysfunctional little household.Stylized with some noirish feel and a touch of European art-house Lee Daniels (of "Precious" fame) debut feature is a mixed bag rather brutally dissected by most critics as a failed adventure into weird and whack. However the general consensus is that Cuba Gooding Jr, Helen Mirren and Stephen Dorff lift the movie, the feeling among the professionals is that this is a failed mixture of styles and forms. Essentially the movie has a fairly standard film structure as an action movie, but the form differentiates itself from the norm, telling stories more with visuals then with dialogues. Here we are also treated with a fairly outlandish duo of leads, which create the ultimate movie taboo couple (mixed race, older woman and young man plus a hint of incest, not to mention we are supposed to sympathise with a pair of seasoned killers-for-hire). Ultimately the experiment does seem to provoke most critics to widespread ire at the audacity, which isn't helped by the amateurish execution of several key scenes of the movie.Verging on pretentious the reaction to this movie can be pretty extreme. Unlike "Drive" the novel take on an action flick moves subtly and uses exquisite movie language, whilst what "Shadowboxer" attempts is derailed by sub-par realisation and excessive experimentation. Despite the potentially groundbreaking script all these fallacies hit too many bad notes, essentially making the watch fascinating, but at the same time irking viewers to point out what's wrong with various scenes, gimmicks and ideas, instead of focusing on the story at hand.
Audacious may be the best word to describe this. It is filled with much of the same style and honesty that Lee Daniels brought to his next film 'Precious', making it a good primer for that noteworthy film. Though it can be highly sexual, violent, stylized, and filled with some baroque plot twists, it has a go-for-broke ingenuousness that makes it all work. It reminds me of Sweet Sweetback's Badaaass Song in the way it plays to what the director knows is a pulpy, inner city aesthetic, but that it is of his world, one filled with violence and unsavory characters. No one here is entirely sympathetic. It defies the stereotypes of more traditional formula driven films. There's no comforting message. Combine all this with his love for films like Sweet Charity and you have an odd film.Daniels confidence in his own vision certainly applies to his notable casting choices that distinguish his films. He is a great director of actors and makes sure that they understand his own background and reasons for employing certain character types and situations. In Shadowboxer, Macy Grey is not only credible, but terrific (as was Mariah Carey in Precious). He gets an understated performance from Cuba Gooding Jr. which alone is a worthy achievement. Helen Mirren deserves accolades, for not just being the great actress one expects, but for maintaining needed integrity in what must have seemed a risky venture. She anchors the story beautifully in what are, to say the least, some bizarre situations. The casting of Mo'nique as lover to Joseph Gordon-Levitt is also wonderful. And Stephen Dorff's full frontal, Trojan and all, is on for the records. In fact, Lee Daniels general obsession with male beauty and asses is a theme in itself. Hello Gus Van Zant! I suppose in the wrong mood you could find the movie just over the top. Even though it's far a perfect film, it is great fun and shows Lee Daniels as a director of force and confidence.
There's no question of including a spoiler. Frankly I didn't find a discernible understandable story line, so how could there be a spoiler. The only reason this film got a "1" rating from me, is because I think any glimpse of Helen Mirren, however unpleasant, is worth something. Not much, though, in this case. Helen must have needed the money to take part in this fiasco. As others have said, this is easily one of the worst films ever produced. It masquerades under false colours for one thing.Really, it should be marketed as pornography and sold only in porn shops. I can conceive that some pornography might not be considered entirely offensive to some people, but this film seems determined to offer something offensive to everyone. If you are a Helen Mirren fan, as I am, my advice is to forget this one. I reran one of her DVI Joan Tennison (Prime Suspect} films to take the bad taste out of my mouth. So why did I check the "spoiler" box? Some folks might interpret this entire commentary a "spoiler"!
If I had the say over whether children could be in movies there would be no children in movies. Parents must leave there parenting instincts at the door when making these decisions for their children. This movie taught a little boy how to kill. This was a weird movie, Helen Mirren must have been paid millions for doing this stinker. The British will do anything for money. Cuba was good but he's always good and this was not worthy of him. I'm sorry I watched this garbage. I was truly shocked to see Helen and Cuba in this movie. It was tawdry and left a bad feeling with me. I guess I do not want to see that underbelly of the world.