Boxing movie misses possible knock-out punch

Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.

A few weeks ago we had "Miracle," the film based on the real events surrounding the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team. Now comes another "sports" film. This one is "inspired by," rather than "based on," the life of Jackie Kallen, the most successful female manager in the world of professional boxing.

"Against the Ropes," while not a bad film by any means and one loaded with high quality talent could have just as easily been called "With the Clichs."

That's a shame. While doing research for this review, I dug into the life of Jackie Kallen and found her real story would have made a much more compelling film.

In the film, Kallen is played by Meg Ryan. In a flashback to 1972 we see young Jackie watching her uncle, boxer Ray-Ray Kallen, as he trains in the gym. This lets us know that Kallen has boxing in her blood and an innate understanding of the sport.

I know that you're thinking no woman who grew up engulfed in such a sport and who now manages professional boxers is going to look like Meg Ryan. To the contrary, Kallen is an attractive woman. She was a radio and TV reporter in Detroit. Instead of being raised around boxing, she became a sportswriter in the 1970s. A company she worked for had Thomas "Hitman" Hearnes as a client and Kallen got interested in the sport. She studied it for 10 years before deciding to try her hand at managing.

Anyway, back to our film.

When we flash to the present we find Kallen working as an assistant to the manager of the Cleveland Coliseum, a sporting arena that features a lot of boxing matches.

One of the big promoters in town is a tough sort with alleged connections to the mob. Actor Tony Shalhoub, as promoter Tony LaRocca, puts in the best acting job of the film.

Kallen acquires a boxer from LaRocca for the sum of $1. When Kallen goes to see her fighter she realizes he's got problems beyond repair. But she does discover another promising prospect in the form of a street fighting enforcer for local drug dealers named Luther Shaw (Omar Epps). She convinces Shaw to sign on with her, hires Felix Reynolds, a retired trainer (Charles S. Dutton) and draws up a contract.

Boxing is a lot different than street brawling, but Shaw has boxed as an amateur so he knows the basics. Training goes well and hopes are high for the future.

When her boss at the Coliseum gets wind of her plans, he fires Kallen. When LaRocca sees the potential in the fighter she's found, he's afraid for his own stable and swears Shaw will never get a match anywhere close to Cleveland.

Undaunted, Kallen and company take their act on the road and begin to rack up some victories. The press can't ignore the story and a sportscaster friend from Cleveland gives Kallen and Shaw their first TV exposure. The media pick up on the female manager angle and, although it's Shaw who is winning the fights, it's Kallen who's getting the attention.

LaRocca and his camp seize on the opportunity to sow the seeds of discontent and things begin to get rocky (please excuse the boxing movie reference; it wasn't intentional) between boxer and management.

The third act is the climactic fight scene and this, indeed, is reminiscent of Stallone's film. To "Against the Ropes'" credit, the boxing scenes here are better than the ones in "Rocky" and rank with the best filmed. Epps also did his own boxing.

The outcome is not a surprise, at least not to the film's audience.

In real life, Kallen is a single mother of two and by all accounts a warm, caring person who never forgets birthdays, is involved in a number of charities and lives for family and friends. They have made her character in "Against the Ropes" a lot more cold and conniving, and I'll say it again: Jackie Kallen's real life story would have made a better film.

Kallen is still involved in boxing and has managed several world champs in various weight classes. She has written a self-help book and is a successful motivational speaker. The plot depicted in "Against the Ropes" is fiction, but Kallen is very real.

She has her own Web site who doesn't? at www.jackiekallen.com. This one is pretty interesting if you want to compare notes between fact and fiction.