At one point in “Christy,” Jim Martin (Ben Foster) chalks up the ability to excel at boxing as “five percent aggression, the rest is strategy and control” as he’s playing a game of pool with Christy Salters (Sydney Sweeney), overlooking the fact that if it weren’t for her tenacity, they surely wouldn’t have crossed paths. His father spotted her at a regional Toughman Contest she fought at for fun when she considers her true sport basketball, but whereas her lack of height puts her at a disadvantage on the court as well as her temper, she can overcompensate with a flurry of body blows in the ring, which makes it a marriage of convenience when Jim can’t help but see her talent, yet isn’t all that enthusiastic about training her nor can she be all that excited about pursuing a sport that aligns with her skills, but not her desire. Perhaps sensing this, Jim tells her that to be a boxer, she’ll be playing a character and soon enough, she’s decked out in pink satin trunks that would look incredibly comfortable on anyone else but her.
Although he’s never made the same film twice, David Michôd would seem like an odd fit himself to take on “Christy” when the boxer’s biography lends itself quite well to a tried and true formula as she became one of the first female fighters of real renown, the first Don King took on to promote and earning a place on the cover of Sports Illustrated at the height of her powers. However, the characters that have generally survived the best in the worlds Michôd has created in such films as “Animal Kingdom” and “War Machine” are the ones that are most authentically themselves and content with who they are, more often than not with the evil they’re capable of. That makes Christy a particularly fascinating character for him and co-writer Mirrah Foulkes, with a story by Katherine Fugate, when there’s no opponent she could fight more formidable than herself in every respect, easily dispatching fighters put in front of her while at odds with the character she’s becoming and at her weakest when she looks to the world like she’s at her strongest.
The role offers a chance for Sweeney to showcase her remarkable range, even if asking her to age from 20 into her late forties is a bit of a stretch when it never seems like the ravages of time are an issue, only the disillusionment of a life Christy never wanted in the first place are. She marries Jim after the world’s most awkward proposal outside of a bar where she’s met her former lover Rosie (Jess Gabor) and her trainer essentially extorts her by threatening to confirm her parents’ suspicions that she’s a lesbian, and when both her gender and sexuality are obvious obstacles, it is a deft decision of Michôd’s to give them as little focus as Christy does when they loom large yet need not be articulated verbally. Instead, they manifest in how everyone invested in Christy’s success can control her, leveraging her fear of the unknown into doing right by everyone but herself, whether it’s protecting her devout religious family’s honor or keeping a roof over Jim’s head when she’s become his sole meal ticket.
When Jim says, “There’d be no Christy Martin without me,” the familiar refrain has a different ring to it when in fact she exists as a creation of others and her fight is to be more herself. That’s true of most of the genre touchstones that “Christy” invariably hits when her rise and fall is no different than a lot of other athletes, but Michôd will often cut away from any expected exposition about winning titles or moving a bit slower to reflect a different set of personal milestones she’s chasing and like the boxer herself trying to keep her career alive, the film turns from muscular to mental as its focus becomes about Christy attempting to leave Jim, taking a turn towards a taut psychological thriller. Operating without any concern for vanity as usual, Foster strikes the right chord of hopelessly needy and controlling, intimidating only to Christy because of what he can hold over her. While she cleverly circumvents his insistence that he remain her trainer well past the peak of their success by hiring a former foe Lisa Holewyne (Katy O’Brien) as a sparring partner and eventual confidante, Foster’s Jim makes for a deceptively vicious villain when he remains one step ahead.
Yet an equally surprising left hook for the film besides its third act may be the fact that it took a boxing film for Michôd to show his softer side, offering moments of tenderness between Christy and Roxie or with Lisa where she finds her real strength away from anyone who’d care to know her as a person rather than as a pugilist and between Sweeney’s disarming vulnerability and Michôd’s unusual points of emphasis, “Christy” comes across the truth of any great fighter in a singular way – that things are more interesting when the gloves come off.
“Christy” will open in limited release on November 7th. It will next screen at the BFI London Film Festival on October 17th at the Southbank Centre at 9 pm, October 18th at the Prince Charles Cinema at 12:45 pm and October 19th at 6 pm at the Vue West End.