Movie Review: Resurrecting the Champ

Yet another "based on a true story" film has reached the big screen. It has journalistic origins as does David Fincher's Zodiac; however Fincher's film stuck much more closely to the procedural aspects, seeking to retain the integrity of the original story, while Resurrecting the Champ looks more to the overly dramatic human story surrounding the source material. The act of writing the article is merely window dressing to the story itself. As for the movie, it is a decent tale, but the execution looks for the dramatic in the mundane, and in the end is carried by one spectacular performance.

Erik Kernan (Josh Hartnett) is the boxing beat writer for a Denver newspaper. He prides himself on his fast growing number of bylines, and struggles with his editor, Ralph (Alan Alda). Erik is accused of not having a voice, no personality showing in his articles. While Erik struggles with taking criticism, constructive or otherwise, he has raised his sights. He aspires to write for the newspaper's magazine section. This would afford him more time to focus on each article, and attempt to be a better father to his son, Teddy, and reunite with his estranged wife, Joyce, who is also a journalist.

One night, after covering a fight, Erik finds a homeless man being beaten up by a group of kids. He steps in to help and is introduced to a man who calls himself Champ (Samuel L. Jackson). Champ claims to be a former professional boxer, ranked number three in the world, having fought Jake Lamotta and sparred with Rocky Marciano. He says his name is Bob Satterfield. Erik files the name away, but has no idea who Satterfield is—strange, considering boxing is the sport he covers. Anyway, he pulls the name out the hat when he interviews for that magazine position. The editors buy into his pitch, and he is off to make the story happen.

He proceeds to conduct a number of interviews with Champ. With the application of a little alcohol, Champ opens up about his past. As their talks go on, Champ tells more and more, with an amazing recall of his past. Erik sees this as his ticket to bigger things. However, the further in he gets... well, let's just say that things are not quite as they appear, and the integrity of our feature writer is called into question as he is forced to confront his own motives and relationships.

Samuel L. Jackson reminds us, for the second time this year (following Black Snake Moan), of just how good an actor he is. Following such films as Freedomland, The Man, and Snakes on a Plane, it can be easy to forget just how good Jackson can be. He completely disappears into the role of Champ. He created a compelling, convincing character that could just have easily fallen into the tearjerker cliché of the down-on-his-luck former star. It really was amazing watching him work. Champ is a sympathetic character, who tells his story with wit and insight, regardless of the plainness of the spoken words.

Article Author: Chris Beaumont

Christopher Beaumont spends much of his time writing about music and movies when he isn't indulging in them. He is always ready to talk about his favorite form of entertainment and offer up recommendations. Interests: SF, horror, and metal. …

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