Sydney Sweeney gives a knockout performance in an unbalanced narrative.
Not knowing Christy Martin’s story and uncertain of how Sweeney would pull off this role, I approached this film with caution. To my surprise, Sweeney’s transformation and gripping performance salvages the spotty storyline.
At first glance, “Christy” appears to be a stereotypical female boxer biopic – Christy starts her career from the bottom, has to prove herself as a worthy woman fighter, and build up to her life-changing match. Well, that element is partly there. Christy does start from the bottom, but the film portrays her success as quick ladder climb. She wins almost all her matches and becomes the first female fighter to sign with legendary promoter, Don King (Chad L. Coleman). Her toughest fight, and the real challenge of the story, is what she faces outside of the ring. Martin struggles with prejudice of her sexuality and to feel safe to be with a woman she loves. Her parent’s pressure her to steer away from this “lifestyle”, which is why Martin submits to a marriage with her bum trainer, Jim Martin (Ben Foster), who quickly shows his true, dark colors as an abusive, controlling, and manipulative husband.
There is a lot to unpack with Christy’s story and sadly, the film fails to show the complexity of Christy’s story. The lack of development and backstory of Christy’s relationship with her parents makes her motive to please them a fairly weak. From an audience perspective, they are terrible, especially her mother. They do not help her in any way, so one wonders why she even bothers to suffer in this trapped life to please them.
Perhaps, the biggest downfall, are the lackluster matches. While, they are decently shot fights, they carry no weight or emotion. Christy wins and we move on. I’m not sure if that’s what we are intended to feel, as we are much more concerned for Christy’s safety and well-being in her personal life.
It is not lost on audiences the irony of Christy choosing a “safe” and “acceptable” spouse, ended up being a spouse that almost murdered her. That aspect to this story stays with you and is absolutely heartbreaking.
As whole, “Christy” is an intriguing tale and the entire cast, especially Sweeney (who is quite possibly at her best) and Foster are captivating, however, the misdirection in the screenplay might take away from those compelling performances.
Rating: C+
