‘Boxer’ (2024) Netflix Movie Review - Filled With Clichés But Also Engaging and Well-Made

In Boxer (aka, Bokser), director Mitja Okorn puts you inside a punching bag. The scenes hit you with such vigor that you don't have time to rest. The movie is always charged with intense emotions, primarily rage. The adrenaline rush that the boxers experience inside the ring is also carried over to other moments. Boxer is never quite - it has wild currents. Even the peaceful ending that labels boxing as "dull" has a smooth, swift momentum. Okorn doesn't want you to rest because the main character, Jedrzej (Eryk Kulm), is restless. He craves money and fame. His eyes at first are hungry, like that of a man who can't wait to taste the sweetness of success. Boxer shares his passion, which is why it runs with the enthusiasm of a dreamer. You can almost feel the excitement in Jedrzej's escape plan, which he discusses with his wife, Kasia (Adrianna Chlebicka), in Poland. Kasia initially seems to be flirting with the suggestion. Hence, she becomes all nervous during the execution. The couple leave their country behind and settle in London, which somewhat reminds you of Moscow on the Hudson. In that Paul Mazursky movie, Vladimir Ivanoff never returns to his motherland. Jedrzej and Kasia, however, come back to Poland at the end. This is, after all, a story that deals with the importance of staying close to one's family members.

When Jedrzej achieves recognition, when he does press interviews and fights big matches, he becomes intoxicated by his new status. He is seduced by a journalist, Eva (Waleria Gorobets), and continues falling into the golden web of deceit spun by Nicky (Adam Woronowicz), his manager. It's your usual morality tale - bad company gives rise to bad behavior. Infidelity and glamour detach Jedrzej from pure and crucial things like his wife, his child, and his uncle (Eryk Lubos). Okorn, along with writers Lucas Coleman and Ivan Bezmarevic, has developed a collection of clichés. Except for the ending, everything else is sorely predictable. When Jackie Boss (Will Huse) offers a deal to Jedrzej where he is required to lose matches in exchange for cash, your mind tells you that he will surely accept this arrangement later. What do you know? Jedrzej and Kasia return to the house (they stay with a friend of Jedrzej's uncle) and realize their host has stolen their money! Why didn't he just accept the cash earlier when the couple were ready to pay him for his services? The "friend" is turned into a foe so Jedrzej can say yes to Jackie's offer. The script's calculations are very obvious.

The writers try to make things less evident by having Jedrzej accept the deal after eight or nine months. When Jedrzej meets Kasia for the first time at a bar in Poland, he tells her to ask him an organic chemistry question. If he answers correctly, she would have to have a drink with him. Otherwise, he would stop being a nuisance. But the question she asks is the one that a teacher in an early scene had asked her students. Couldn't the writers have come up with anything fresh? As soon as Kasia notices Nicky, she understands he is evil. Her looks and warnings to her husband give the impression that she knows Nicky well. Boxer, though, brushes aside this notion after planting it in our brains. During an interview, Jedrzej fails to mention how Kaisa helped him with translation when they first arrived in London, which seems weird given that they apologized and decided to set things right earlier. The movie simply wants to create more mess at the expense of coherence.

What Boxer lacks in terms of writing, it makes up for through its visual energy and performances. The boxing matches are frenetic - the male hormones flow out of the frame. One can find traces of Raging Bull in the way Jedrzej decides to punish himself during a match. Eryk Kulm plays his character like someone who has a loose screw in his head. He remains unserious, delusional, and naive about his circumstances. Kulm's Jedrzej mostly remains selfish because that's the only attitude he has, given he is blinded by his own aspirations. As Kasia, Adrianna Chlebicka is strong and supportive in equal measure. She takes your attention away from the men with the sheer force of her performance. Chlebicka opens a window and lets us read Kasia's thoughts and motivations. Eryk Lubos is lovely as a supportive uncle, and Adam Woronowicz is also fine as a sleazy villain. Waleria Gorobets is completely wasted. Her Eva lacks the aura of a seductress. This is why you feel that Jedrzej is going after her, but only because that's what the movie wants him to do, so it can cause more complications. Boxer is engaging and well-made. It isn't original in any way. Nevertheless, considering how many movies nowadays struggle to do basic tasks with competence, something as decent and impressively directed as Boxer looks like rain on a parched land.

Final Score- [7/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times