# Play It to the Bone (1999)

### reviewed by
Eugene Novikov

    Play It to the Bone (1999)
    Reviewed by Eugene Novikov
    http://www.ultimate-movie.com/
    Member: Online Film Critics Society

Starring Antonio Banderas, Woody Harrelson, Lolita Davidovich, Tom Sizemore, Lucy Liu. Directed by Ron Shelton. Rated R.

With all the fuss that was made about Fight Club, it was a hell of a letdown when the movie turned out to suck. Well, for all of us that were sorely disappointed by the misbegotten David Fincher satire, along comes Ron Shelton's Play It to the Bone, a film that deals with the same themes in a similar fashion but is actually good. Funny, exciting, sometimes profound and kind of sweet, it upstages the pretentious, mean- spirited Fight Club in every way possible.

This movie has had the fiercest advertising campaign for a non-event movie in recent memory, so regular moviegoers should have had the plot drilled into their heads already. If not, it's very simple: Cesar Dominguez and Vince Boudreau, two failed, over-the-hill middleweight boxers, receive a phone call while they're training in the gym one afternoon. It seems that the undercard fight for Mike Tyson can't take place -- one of the boxers is dead and the other is stoned out of his mind. Big-time Las Vegas program coordinators headed by Tom Sizemore need two boxers desperately. They're willing to give Dominguez and Boudreau $50,000 a piece and a guaranteed shot at a title if they come to Las Vegas and fight each other that night.

They enlist the companionship and support (as well as the vehicle) of Grase Pasic (Lolita Davidovich), an indecisive woman who, at some point, had a relationship with both boxers; 6 years with Vince and 6 months with Cesar. Together they drive to Vegas (taking a detour, of course, to look at rock striations). During the drive, Cesar tells about his experimentation with homosexuality, as well as his crushing loss in Madison Square Garden years prior. Soon, Cesar and Vince start bickering, obviously trying to make it easier to hit each other later.

Along the way, they pick up a hitchhiker (Lucy Liu), who proceeds to seduce Vince and piss off Grace. Tom Sizemore shouts and curses for almost all of his screen time. Grace Pasic seems like a great woman and Cesar and Vince are people we don't mind spending time with. By the time the all-important match approaches, we feel like the outcome matters because the characters have really grown on us during the past two hours.

Some writers have attacked this movie for the neutrality of its climactic bout, offering the fact that we can't really root for either contestant as a quibble. That is probably the most absurd criticism of a movie that I've ever heard, this side of the idiots who chastised Eyes Wide Shut for being unerotic. The fight is exciting precisely because we don't know whom to root for. Rooting isn't the point and that's exactly the intention. Shelton aims beyond the basic entertainment value of a "big game" moment.

Antonio Banderas has finally found a role where his accent suits him well and Harrelson was born to play Vince. But the real discovery here is Lolita Davidovich. The 38-year-old Canadian-born actress recently had smaller parts in Gods and Monsters and Mystery, Alaska, but her breakthrough comes here. She brings a vital intelligence and sweetness to the role, forming a likable character whom we have no trouble accepting as an emotional catalyst for Cesar and Vince. When she's on screen, the movie can do no wrong.

Ron Shelton has a passion and an eye for sports movies, previously directing the Kevin Costner baseball vehicle Bull Durham as well as the Harrelson/Wesley Snipes basketball movie White Men Can Jump. He directs Play It to the Bone with a sure hand, never afraid to take his time but also not forgetting to make things interesting. The climax is a screaming menagerie of camera tricks so skillfully put together you can't take your eyes off the screen.

It's not uncommon for relatively modest flicks like this one to be lambasted from nearly every direction while pretentious crap like The Hurricane is met with nearly unanimous critical hosannas. I'll hold my ground as a staunch defender of the innocent

    Grade: B+

    ©1999 Eugene Novikov

    Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
    Before you buy.

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