Shadowboxer - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution movie review

'Shadowboxer': Entertaining — in all the wrong ways

By STEVE MURRAY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

One of the campiest, most lushly ludicrous movies to come out in a while, "Shadowboxer" is even funnier for the fact that everybody involved seems to take it so seriously.

Pay attention, because this gets tricky from the get-go: Helen Mirren stars as Rose, an aging assassin-for-hire suffering terminal cancer, but still whacking folks alongside her lover, Mikey (Cuba Gooding Jr.). Who's also her stepson. OK?

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'Shadowboxer'

The verdict: The best unintentional comedy of the year.

Director: Lee Daniels
Starring: Cuba Gooding Jr., Helen Mirren, Vanessa Ferlito, Stephen Dorff, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Run time: 92 minutes
Release date: July 21, 2006
Rating: R for strong graphic violence and sexuality, nudity, language and some drug use.

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They accept one last job, snuffing witnesses to a broken-cuestick-where-the-sun-don't-shine murder committed by underworld thug Clayton (Stephen Dorff, doing his usual psycho-strut). The group hit is going just fine, Rose and Mikey filling the servants with lead as they prowl through Clay's mansion — you know, the one with the live zebra in the yard? But then they find Clay's wife Vickie (Vanessa Ferlito) in bed, very pregnant — and, oh my God, did her water just break?

It did! And suddenly Rose is all, Go to the kitchen, Mikey, and get some water! And Mikey is all, Are you nuts, we're supposed to whack her, not do Lamaze. But they deliver the baby boy, then run away with mother and child, hoping Clay won't realize they didn't finish the job. (I guess the miracle of childbirth can make you second-guess that whole slay-for-pay thing.)

William Lipz's script is trying to say something about nontraditional families and how the sins of the father are revisited on the blah blah, etc. It's hard to say what the real message is, since the theme keeps getting trampled on by colorful performances from Macy Gray as Vickie's adorably unbalanced pal, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a Dr. Feelgood for the mob and Mo'Nique as his crack-smoking receptionist-girlfriend, Precious. Yes, Precious, just like Buffalo Bill's lapdog.

The movie is beautifully shot and over-designed in that not-of-this-world vibe you see in fashion mags. Kitsch aficionados will love the magically lit scene in the woods, where Gooding makes picturesque, buttocks-pumping love to Mirren, whose red dress matches the forest's flowers. And the soundtrack, with its spurts of tango, opera and mournful cello solos, keeps reminding us how very serious and important the movie is. And — man oh man — the actors seem to buy it, too; they must have been fed the script one scene at a time, so they couldn't see the bigger, sillier picture.

You gotta hand it to them. They give it their all, whether it's Dorff going full-frontal naked (well, except for the condom), or Gooding digging a grave in the buff. Maybe the best bit, though, is when Gooding dresses up in a ... never mind, I don't want to spoil it. Even if he doesn't seem to realize he's directing a gonzo comedy, first-time director Lee Daniels apparently has some powers of persuasion with his cast. Well, to a point.

Gooding is clearly seeking career rehabilitation by not appearing opposite talking dogs or playing gay on a cruise ship. But his idea of serious acting seems to be looking constipated. Likewise, Ferlito sticks to one expression: a pout of her pretty, bee-stung lips.

Fair warning: Whenever Mirren is off-screen, the movie isn't even much of a guilty pleasure. And she's MIA for a full third of the flick, tumbling "Shadowboxer" into an absurdity that can no longer be leavened by her typically nuanced work.

Still, even if the folks who made "Shadowboxer" deludedly thought they were making a gutsy, stylish modern noir, you have to thank them for delivering such a load of accidental, homoerotic hilarity. It's entertaining, in all the wrong ways.