Ambitious Denver sports reporter Erik Kernan (Josh Hartnett) lives in the shadow of his famous radio broadcaster father, and has to deal with an editor (Alan Alda) who characterizes his work as more typing than writing. He also has a busted marriage to colleague Joyce (Kathryn Morris) and a young son whose life he is desperate to remain a part of. Searching for a breakout piece to help him land a cushy magazine job that will afford him more time to be the best chronicler that he can be, Erik believes he’s found his story when he stumbles across “Battling Bob” Satterfield (Samuel L. Jackson), a former heavyweight contender now living on the streets.

Based on a feature article by J.R. Moehringer and adapted for the screen by Michael Bortman and Allison Burnett, director Rod Lurie's Resurrecting the Champ is for the most part a solidly constructed, meat-and-potatoes drama, even if certain scenes abut one another in awkward fashion. Hartnett is still having to battle the dewey-eyed, puppy dog perception thing, but here, playing a father for the first time, he gets a nice chance to showcase varying levels of personality. While Jackson's is the showier role, and it's nice to see him actually deign to legitimately delve into a character (something he only bothers to do once every three or four films these days), Hartnett is the motor that powers this movie forward.

Lurie’s film has the advantage, like life, of being about several things at once — it’s a story of mentorship, personal responsibility, lapsed judgment, and reconciliation, each quite credible in its own way, and intriguingly blended here. Where Resurrecting the Champ really comes off track a bit is in its sudden thrusting of Erik into the national spotlight: When Teri Hatcher pops up as a force-of-nature cable TV executive who inks him to provide boxing coverage (hired on the strength of his written word, Erik's hired to... look good?), I kept waiting for a reveal that never came … or, rather, turned out to be something else. Without spoiling some of its twists and turns (this is really a movie that's being sold, I'm quite happy to report, on only its most straightforward elements), Resurrecting the Champ is a nice look at men drained of valor, especially if you forgive it a few arbitrary grabs at the spotlight. For the original capsule review, from CityBeat, click here and scroll down.