OK. Let's start this by saying that I am from Belfast and although I haven't ever lived in a nationalist "district" like the one this film tries to portray I am fairly aware of what happens in parts of Belfast. With that out of the way - the acting isn't that bad, Daniel Day-Lewis is pretty good as is Emily Watson except for the occasional dodgy accent the rest get through unscathed. It's not the "Irish Rocky" - despite sporting some very striking similarities in the plot, Danny never really fills you with much confidence. But the most offensive thing is the patronising tone of the film. Perhaps I have been put off by the skyline shots of another town that quite obviously isn't Belfast and the look of a film that could have been shot in 1987 not 1997 but the politics was patronising - a boxing match could bring together 2 communities that have been locked in hatred for 30 years? Substituting one sort of violence for another, albeit a much less nasty violence, is the kind of logic that causes these unending wars. Give me a break Sheridan. He also wrote last year's corny Irish-American flick "In America". The picture is fairly dark and bleak, this can be the case for people living in fear, but this film skirted round the true issues that confine them there.
Review of The Boxer
