Christy: Movie Review

Christy begins with the female boxer, Christy Salters (Sydney Sweeney), competing in what appears to be an amateur boxing event in 1989. She comes home and interacts with her brother and parents, letting the audience gain an initial grasp on her family dynamic, especially concerning her sexuality. She gets scouted to train with a man named Jim Martin (Ben Foster) where their relationship is shown to be incredibly strained, with Jim immediately writing Christy off as a boxer. A montage starts where Christy wins fights and Jim and Christy's relationship starts to become more than trainer/trainee. Christy meets with an old girlfriend of hers, Rosie, and Jim is shown to be extremely jealous and controlling of Christy, showing the audience that Jim isn't as he seems. They get married and in 1995, you see more cracks in the relationship. Christy gets a deal with Don King and goes through multiple undercard fights that allow her to soar to the top of women's boxing. Don King foreshadows that Christy won't be at the top forever, and the movie jumps to 2003, where Jim is shown to be much worse as Christy begins to train to fight Laila Ali. Jim starts to get physically and sexually abusive with Christy. Christy has a feeling that the upcoming fight won't go very well and Jim keeps pushing her because he just wants the money. Christy is knocked out in the 4th round to Laila Ali and the film cuts to 2010, where is shows Jim and Christy's relationship at a boiling point. He is very much in control of everything Christy does, and if she steps out of line, he is physically abusive toward her and blackmails her to stay in line. Christy tries to leave Jim and gets a motel room with Rosie to figure out what she wants to do next. She ultimately decides to go back to the house for her things, but takes a nap first. Jim wakes her up, grabs a knife, and stabs Christy multiple times. He goes to grab a gun, shoots Christy in the stomach, and goes to take a shower, leaving her to bleed to death. She is able to find some strength to slowly wobble out of the house and flags down a car to take her to the hospital. Jim is later arrested and tried, with Christy going back to her boxing gym to continue training for fighting in the future.

Although Jim's abuse is apparent throughout the film, with multiple threats of killing Christy if she ever left him and blackmail, the movie doesn't truly focus on the domestic abuse of Christy's situation until a little over halfway through the movie. Boxing was the main focus of the beginning of the movie where the scenes were filmed in a very basic manner. Their not cinematic like in Creed, but they get the point across about Christy's boxing ability and why she was able to become a star female boxer. Her boxing is very important to her life, but the movie's main story was about her toxic relationship with her trainer Jim and how she was, thankfully, able to survive. I think Sydney Sweeney did a great job in this role and, even though this movie didn't do well in the box office, I really think this is a great stepping stone for Sweeney's more dramatic acting roles. Another movie I feel the same about is Immaculate, the movie was alright, but Sweeney, I thought, was very good.

Because the movie was mainly about the domestic abuse, I think it could have cut out a couple fights in the 1995 section. It just felt like it dragged and maybe taking 15 minutes or so out of this section would allow the audience to really understand and be involved with the later parts of the film. By the time 2010 rolled around, I was surprised there was still about 1 45 minutes left of the movie. Jim was incredibly off-putting through out the movie, but his true colors don't come out until after Christy starts making money from boxing. I did think it was odd for Christy to go back to the house after leaving Jim. Jim was very physical and threatened to kill her multiple times, so it was upsetting that she wanted to go back to the house for her stuff and even take a nap while he was in the house. It almost seemed obvious that Jim was going to do something, but Christy decided to go anyway. She said it was because she didn't want to run anymore, but at least having someone else with her would have been a better choice than going alone.

There was also a slight problem with the ages of the characters. In 1995, Christy is said to be about 24 years old, so in 2010 she's... 39? They didn't age the actors at all with the timestamps other than Jim's hair thinning throughout the movie. Not really a problem overall, but an observation on consistency that could have gone in the movie's favor.

Overall, I rate this movie a 7/10. I think Sydney Sweeney has the capabilities of being a good actress and this movie is definitely a step in the right direction if she wants to be taken seriously. It's a great movie regarding domestic abuse situations and an okay movie regarding boxing. It's slightly too long, especially because the meat of the story doesn't happen until the end. A 15 minute cut would have kept things a bit tighter.