While boxing is a famous solitary sport, ultimately boiling down to a competition between two individual competitors, the close relationship between a pugilist and their trainer is tough and intimate, perfect material for a dramatic feature. Rocky’s Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) and Mickey Goldmill (Burgess Meredith), Million Dollar Baby’s Maggie (Hilary Swank) and Frankie (Clint Eastwood), or Claressa Shields (Ryan Destiny) and Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry) in The Fire Inside all highlight both the fiery aspirations and the dangerous pitfalls of the boxer-trainer relationship. Uppercut, by director Torsten Ruether, benefits from Ving Rhames’ strong screen presence, but a lack of believability in both character development and plotting keep the character study from working.
In a way, Torsten Ruether has already made Uppercut twice. His debut feature premiered at Oldenburg in 2021 with Leberhaken, a low-budget boxing feature about a young woman (Luise Grossman), who tries to convince a grizzled coach to train her. Persuaded in the aftermath to remake it for the U.S., he kept Grossman and has brought on Rhames to film Uppercut, but ended up with enough material to essentially cut it two ways: the “Still Version,” more arthouse, more dialogue-driven, and this version, originally referred to as the “Sparkling Version,” here just Uppercut.
What is ‘Uppercut’ About?

Toni (Grossman) is a young woman with as many legal issues as she has anger issues, and she wants to work the latter out in the only appropriate place: in the ring. She seeks out the guidance of Elliot (Rhames), an ex-champion who has trained some of the best heavyweights to ever step inside the squared circle. He reluctantly agrees to train Toni, as she works to knock out her demons and overcome both her past and the gendered expectations of her current boy toy. Years later, she’s a successful female manager in a male-dominated sport, with a strained relationship with her own fighter, Payne (Jordan E. Cooper).
‘Uppercut’ Suffers From A Believability Crisis

Image via Lionsgate

It’s obvious from his work in Pulp Fiction and the Mission: Impossible franchise that Ving Rhames has a certain gravitas in everything he does, and it works well here as gruff trainer (still champ in his heart), Elliot. Stern but not unkind, he reluctantly works with the angry, a bit too energetic (at least in his estimation) young woman, teaching her about a fighter’s discipline, blues history (shout out to Buddy Guy and Muddy Waters, both legends), and dealing with the rough spots in interpersonal relationships, and the eminently watchable Rhames makes it all work. Grossman, however, remains stiff throughout the film. Lines feel forced and inorganic in both the past and future scenes, and the confident future version of the character is woefully unbelievable. For example, future Toni berates her fighter with a series of questions. “You can’t keep your shit together. You ain’t down with any rules?,” she asks, as part of a tirade. “You let yourself get played? You can’t wait a goddamn minute,” in a series of stiff, part of a set of one-sided assertions and queries that need another round of scripting to feel like the speech of a real-life human.
Quite a few scenes feel like another take might have been beneficial. This all imposes a further limitation on the film’s future scenes, which don’t benefit from Rhames’ charisma. The plotting of Uppercut needs honing, as well. Elliot is hesitant to train Toni, and at first, he doesn’t even want her in the gym, but then he becomes a reluctant trainer then a committed, advice-giving coach within a remarkably short amount of time. It’s largely a series of intimate one-on-one gym conversations, which feel at times like a one-act play. The implausibility of the set-up, quick plot progression, and disconnects between the two eras create difficulties in the suspension of disbelief. It’s fine to have a film like this that’s low-action and character-driven, but it adds extra pressure for performances and believable character development to land. When Toni’s reluctant to support her fighter in the future segment’s ring, we don’t have enough of a sense of the character’s motivations to explain it.

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The movie premieres on February 28.

Uppercut is a character-driven boxing film that, much like a punch from its protagonist, doesn’t land. For his part, Rhames is solid. As the protagonist, Toni, Grossman is routinely stiff, as is the dialogue her character is given. The character’s motivations routinely feel ungrounded, a fact alluded to by Rhames’ Elliot, who tells Toni (when she claims to refuse to quit) “your ‘why’ for this sport isn’t enough to carry on.” That’s an apt analysis and a dramatic issue; she chooses boxing but doesn’t have a strong motivator, which makes it all the more curious when she’s supposed to become a big shot in the sport. We’re told that version of the character is a “genius,” and “hot shit,” but we don’t see it. All we’re allowed to see is her hesitancy to support her fighter, Payne, which isn’t sufficiently explained. A character study needs believable performances and deep characters with strong motivations, and Uppercut misses it.
‘Uppercut’ Goes Down For The Count

Boxing is a wonderful sport for a character study. Ring action and training montages aside, it’s ultimately a solitary sport. It’s up to a fighter to find the strength to get up at 5 am for roadwork, to pick themselves off the canvas in the 12th round, or to overcome obstacles to be the best. To convey these intimate details and developments requires rich, layered performances and depth on the page, and that’s where Uppercut is lacking. Rhames manages to give gravitas to his role, but Toni is neither scripted nor delivered with the depth needed to make the protagonist’s journey work. Additionally, the film is ill-served by the decision to split focus somewhat between the character’s past and future struggles, which dilute focus and don’t cohere nearly as much as intended. It’s down for the count before it ever hit the ring.
Uppercut comes to theaters and VOD services on February 28.

Uppercut

Ving Rhames excels, but can’t support the weight of a film with many other problems.

Release Date

February 18, 2025

Runtime

104 minutes

Pros & Cons

Ving Rhames delivers a strong and charismatic performance as a reluctant trainer.

Luise Großmann is regularly stiff as Toni, and isn’t helped by issues in how the character is scripted.
Quite a few elements of the narrative don’t make sense or are otherwise underdeveloped.
The film’s timeline split introduces new problems and pulls the narrative further away from the elements that do work.