 Dir: Lee Daniels, 2005, USA, 93 mins
Cast: HELEN MIRREN, Cuba Gooding Jr., Stephen Dorff
Professional assassins Rose (MIRREN) and her stepson/lover Mikey (Gooding Jr.) agree to carry out one last hit for crime boss Clayton (Dorff) before Rose’s ill-health forces them to retire. The job - to murder Clayton’s wife Vicki (Vanessa Perlito).
As seasoned moviegoers can anticipate the hit does not go to plan (since The Day of the Jackal (1973) these things rarely do); terminally ill Rose has a crisis of conscience when she discovers Vicki is pregnant and decides to spare the woman’s life. Reluctantly Mikey agrees with her plan and the three (plus Vicki’s baby, born in the time it takes to mix a whiskey sour) go into hiding. Keeping up the pretence that Vicki is dead and her body disposed off Mikey continues in his 9 to 5 job as hit man for ‘mad as a snake’ Clayton. This leaves the ladies to look after the child and Rose to plan for Mikey’s life after she has gone - what can possibly go wrong?
Lee Daniels’ first film as director is an enthusiastic Tarantino-esque gambol through the Philadelphia under-world complete with casual violence and pantomime villains into which he has shoe-horned a chunk of morality with a side order of irony. Better known as the producer on Monster’s Ball (2001) and The Woodsman (2004), Daniels has thrown himself at the task with gusto but with a certain lack of discipline.
Mirren has described the filming of Shadowboxer as ‘organised anarchy’ and unfortunately that lack of discipline ends up on the screen; characters are not meaningfully fleshed out and the tone can be uncertain, switching from brutal to banal without the wit which Tarantino would customarily bring to his work. We know the points the director is trying to make about the cycle of violence and the role of man as protector but his message is hackneyed and one-dimensional. Perhaps in time his skills as a director and those of the writer (whose first project this also was) will develop enough to comfortably express themselves on screen.
Cuba Gooding brings two qualities to this movie; near silence and a well-toned body, (he had been training to make another boxing movie). His character is of the ‘still waters run deep’ stereotype, refreshing for those who still wake in a cold sweat recalling his Oscar acceptance speech for Jerry McGuire (1996). However, the resultant leaden dullness of his character is leavened by the director’s delight in manoeuvring Cuba’s perfect buttocks into every possible shot ‘in the best possible taste’. Best of these is a scene shot in woodland where his perfect peaches glow in a late afternoon light reminiscent of a Dairy Box advertisement.
Following on from the partial success of his first venture in the director’s chair it will be interesting to see whether Daniels decides to continue on this course or restrict himself to production. Something of a polymath he has already worked as a casting director for Prince, set up a Health Care Agency and advised President Clinton on race related issues. As a talented fixer behind the scenes, perhaps he would be best advised to develop his production company and leave direction to those who have a natural gift for it.
Extras:
Making of Shadowboxer - feature including clarification of the director’s desire to have a zebra in one shot and the actor’s thoughts on working in independent film.
Behind Shadowboxer - a diary of the shoot and a good introduction to chicken wrangling, working with children and the unpredictability of inanimate objects.
We also get to see the director’s septic Shadowboxer tattoo; an image that will linger longer than most of the film. |
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