Far from a knockout, 'Boxer' packs very little punch

REVIEW
	The Boxer At Showcase

It's an interesting experiment: taking "Rocky" and transplanting it into the crumbling buildings and littered streets of war-torn Belfast, Northern Ireland. The filmmakers saw it as an opportunity to explore a number of topics: boxing, the IRA, violence, love conquering all. It's too bad that they were barely able to scratch the surface of any of them.

"The Boxer" reteams the makers of "In The Name Of The Father," the captivating 1993 film about a man wrongly accused of an IRA bombing, writer-director-producer Jim Sheridan, co-writer Terry George and star Daniel Day-Lewis.

While that film focused on an important true story (the trials of the Guildford Four), "The Boxer" tells a smaller, more intimate story about two people fighting for love amidst the local IRA's internal conflicts.

When we meet Danny Flynn (Day-Lewis), he is being released from a 14-year prison sentence ambiguously involving his previous affiliation with the IRA. But he has since rescinded his allegiance with that group, an act that makes him less than welcome when he returns to his old home in Belfast. He tries to reopen the community gym, as well as kick start his boxing career again, but his peaceful, non-sectarian attitude upsets certain players in the local IRA.

On the other side of the story is Maggie (Emily Watson, breathtaking and Oscar-nominated in 1995's "Breaking the Waves"), a so-called "prisoner's wife" who was once in love with Danny. Her memory is all that has kept Danny sane while in prison.

"Boxer" Danny Flynn (Daniel Day-Lewis) puts the moves on Maggie (Emily Watson).

Their love is now forbidden, though, because Maggie must remain faithful to the cause, which means staying faithful to her husband in prison. To complicate matters further, Maggie's father (Brian Cox) is the head of the local IRA. Danny's meddling presence is making matters worse still, especially in the midst of delicate peace talks with the British government.

The film does a wonderful job of highlighting the religious basis of "the troubles," the profoundly deep-running animosity between Catholics and Protestants. Rarely do films dealing with the IRA emphasize this conflict. Danny's non-sectarian gym succeeds for a brief moment before the people's ingrained intolerance gets the better of them and they riot in a harrowing scene of senseless violence.

The film puts a new spin on the typical us-vs.-them IRA conflict, as well. There is no evil England here; all the violence in the film is instigated by one rogue IRA member who sees no justice in the peace process.

The members of the IRA say they're fighting for peace, but when it seems like it might finally come, they don't know what to do with it. The response is more violence.

While the ideas and moderate stance are novel, "The Boxer" suffers from a real lack of substance. Throughout the film, much of the past is shrouded in mystery, especially Danny's crime, but the mystery is never resolved.

Without a solid sense of who these characters are, we never get a clear insight into who they've become. And whenever they do refer to the past, it's always with such vague, trite lines as "We're not kids anymore ... ."

Violence erupts at several key intervals, but forward movement is slow. The film thus relies heavily on dialogue, but it is not well written.

Faced with such obstacles, Watson and Day-Lewis turn in the best performances they can, appearing stoic until they can't contain their emotions anymore, and they come flooding out in the film's attempt to drown the violence with love.

The film doesn't claim a simple solution to "the troubles," but it does pretend to offer hope through love, a simple assertion for an all-too-simple film.

01-12-98