The emotional template of Midnight Cowboy provides the unlikely inspiration for the slightly smarter-than-average knuckle-duster Fighting, in which two different-minded New York City outcasts team up in mutual-use fashion to pull themselves up and out of their marginal existences. Committed performances and smart, unobtrusive direction help mitigate a story with some notable lapses in logic, and elevate it in relation to like-minded fare.



Alabama native Shawn MacArthur (Channing Tatum, above) has come to New York City with nothing. Selling phony Harry Potter books and other counterfeit goods on the street, he’s barely earning a living. Shawn’s luck changes when, in a scrum protecting his merchandise, scam artist and smooth-talking hustler Harvey Boarden (Terrence Howard) sees he has a natural talent for fighting. Harvey offers Shawn a chance at making bigger money in back-room, bare-knuckle brawls where the rich and curious gather to watch and bet on brawny strangers. The duo form an unfussy partnership, with Shawn crashing on Harvey’s couch. As Shawn experiences some success, he finds himself drawn to single mother Zulay Velez (Zulay Henao). He also crosses paths with an old college nemesis turned professional mixed martial arts fighter, Evan Haley (Brian White), setting the scene for a climactic rooftop clash with a $100,000 payday.

Fighting‘s third act unravels a bit; the reasons provided for the animosity between Shawn and Evan aren’t particularly plausible, or compelling. Still, director Dito Montiel (A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints) works in a fairly restrained fashion outside of the cramped fight sequences, and the film’s dialogue is alternately good-naturedly carping and a bit roughhewn, with overlapping or halting exchanges nicely shading characters’ personalities. In all, there’s a lot of honest effort and investment here in character and emotion, which at least feels refreshing.

Interesting musical selections also help give the film purpose, and punch. In addition to very effective use of Marvin Gaye’s “Trouble Man,” horn-inflected original compositions give Fighting an early sense of uplift. Various ethnically flavored fight sequences, meanwhile, incorporate bits of traditional instrumentation accordant with their respective settings or antagonists. For the full original review, from Screen International, click here. (Rogue, PG-13, 105 minutes)