'Shadowboxer'

By Patrick Storck, Metromix, Zap2It.com | July 12, 2008

Helen Mirren and Cuba Gooding Jr. in 'Shadowboxer'

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Shadowboxer is the story of Mikey (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), a hitman who honors the wishes of his lover/stepmother Rose (Helen Mirren) by agreeing to look after a woman (Vanessa Ferlito) and child the pair were paid to assassinate. Unfortunately, of the 90 minutes used to tell this story, barely half of that involves actual story-telling. Every scene is padded with slow-motion shots and lingering glances.

First-time director Lee Daniels seems so set on making a visually interesting film, that he forgets to develop characters. The plot suffers as well, and seems entirely devoid of logic. For instance, over the course of seven years, only the child ages, while Stephen Dorff, as the film's villain, retains the same stubble and frosted hair. Also, said villain hires a hitman to kill someone. Yet, throughout the film he repeatedly kills without much thought or effort, leaving viewers to wonder why he needed the hitman in the first place. In some scenes, you can even see "dead" characters still moving.

Viewers are never given reason to believe that the characters are capable of anything beyond the occasional moment of reflection. The performances are physically and emotionally static, vocally melodramatic, and are only convincing in moments of silence (of which there are admittedly many). Singer Macy Gray is exceptionally bad. Perhaps she should save her sultry voice for the recording studio and focus on starring in music videos, instead.