01/09/98
MOVIE REVIEW: The Boxer
'The Boxer'is a knockout

By MICHAEL JANUSONIS
Journal-Bulletin Arts Writer

**** (out of five)
Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Emily Watson, Brian Cox, Ken Stott, Gerard McSorley, Eleanor Methven, Ciaran Fitzgerald. A Universal picture written by Jim Sheridan and Terry George, directed by Sheridan. Rated R, contains violence, profanity, adult themes. Running time: 107 minutes.

Director Jim Sheridan, co-writer Terry George and Daniel Day-Lewis are back down that road called "the Irish Troubles" again.

The three explored the friction between Catholics and Protestants in British-ruled Northern Ireland to dramatic effect (and to seven Oscar nominations) four years ago in In the Name of the Father, about four young men framed by the British police and convicted of planting an Irish Republican Army bomb at a police station.

With The Boxer, they've again scored a knockout, this time looking at the more recent situation in Belfast, where peace keeps threatening to break out.

Day-Lewis plays the title character, Danny Flynn, a one-time contender who was convicted of IRA violence and, as the film opens, is about to be released from prison after 14 years. While in prison he has changed a great deal, becoming a man of peace who no longer has any interest in the factional fights that left Belfast a shambles. But what he finds on the outside is both different and the same.

There have been behind-the-scenes dealings between the British government and the more moderate members of the IRA. But some people on both sides fear a settlement that will limit their powers, and some IRA members are still spoiling for a fight.

Danny, on the other hand, is a low-key character. He's more interested in rebuilding what he can of his career, mainly in bottom-card fights, or in helping a local community center rebuild its boxing gym for the kids in the neighborhood.

He's also more interested in squiring his old girlfriend, Maggie (Emily Watson, who made such an impact in -- and got an Oscar nomination for -- Breaking the Waves). When Danny went to prison, Maggie gave up on him and married his best friend. Now her husband is in prison himself and Danny is out and knocking at her door.

This creates tension among some of the more rabble-rousing IRA members, especially because Maggie's father (Brian Cox) is a moderate member of the IRA and his daughter is expected to live a circumspect private life despite her loveless marriage.

The angry IRA faction, led by a self-styled keeper of the faith named Harry (Gerard McSorley), fears that peace will lead to an end to their influence.

It's an Irish stew of emotions cooked up by Sheridan and co-writer George, who approach the problems of peace from very personal angles. We know the problems of the Irish partition. We can see the barricades that separate Belfast's Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods on screen. But Sheridan and George play out the larger picture in emotional, tender terms.

Day-Lewis makes a dashing and sensitive Danny, a man for whom fighting outside the ring seems senseless. Danny hopes to revive both his career -- he's rusty but still scrappy at 32 -- and a gentler past. In a powerful moment that defines his purpose and his new life, Danny takes a sledgehammer to the concrete barrier placed across the door of his old apartment.

Looking trim, Day-Lewis creates a quiet hero who only wants to bring back the Holy Family Boxing Club to give kids a better chance than he had.

Danny's romance with Maggie creates both political problems for her father and problems with her teenage son Liam (Ciaran Fitzgerald), who views her as a traitor to both his father and the cause. Eventually Liam will indulge in surprising and pointless violence as an act of rebelliousness.

Watson, who creates real screen chemistry with Day-Lewis, makes Maggie a sensitive young woman who pines to be loved, yet is willing to give up her chance at happiness if it's going to create problems for her father and son. She's at the heart of the film's love story and its dilemmas.

The interesting thing about The Boxer is the way it shows how violence affects the lives of its characters, and how it tends to breed more violence until someone has the courage to stop. It's a radical concept for some of the people in a film that sometimes tends toward melodrama so it can have an ending both powerful and surprising.