Cinema: Critique In Brief: An Indie Knockout

All right, it's Rocky redux. A nobody rises to boxing glory--same long odds, same grizzled trainer, same love interest (called Adrian!). But was there ever a boxing movie that had the two combatants cuffing each other and, when they clinch, one saying to the other, "I love you"?

You could call Girlfight a new kind of corny. But this isn't the heroic treacle of the NBC Olympics. Like the better indie films, Girlfight dares to play sentiment straight. It makes boxing a civilizing occupation; learning to do something well turns a girl with too much attitude into a woman--almost a lady....

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