Copyright The Boston Globe
Both films were also preceded by more gripping documentaries on their subjects. Martin was featured in a 2021 episode of the Netflix series “Untold”; Kerr’s story was previously shown in a 2002 documentary that was also entitled “The Smashing Machine” after Kerr’s nickname. “Christy” couldn’t use Martin’s professional nickname, “The Coal Miner’s Daughter,” because the 1980 Loretta Lynn biopic got there first. Martin’s story is the more horrifying of the two dramas. Her much older husband and trainer, Jim Martin (played in this film by Ben Foster), was convicted of attempted second degree murder in 2012. After a dispute, Martin’s husband stabbed her multiple times before shooting her. She survived the attack and is now a boxing promoter. The script for “Christy” is shockingly inept. Director David Michôd (“Animal Kingdom”) and his co-writer, Mirrah Foulkes, turn Martin’s inspirational story into a Lifetime movie replete with cheap attempts at stand up and cheer moments. The writing is coy when it should be direct, and the characterizations of the main antagonists are so broad that it reduces Martin to victim-like status. The film opens with a needle drop of the Tears for Fears hit, “Head Over Heels.” It’s 1989, and Martin’s homophobic parents are upset by her boisterous demeanor (and the way she throws hands with minimal provocation), her butch appearance, and her relationship with another woman. None of this is considered ladylike in a small town in West Virginia, but Martin doesn’t care. Her confidence grows once she starts knocking people out in the ring. You can see the biopic cliché wheels turning in this early section, especially in the dreadful characterization of Martin’s mother, Joyce (Merritt Wever). It’s believable that Joyce and her husband, Johnny (Ethan Embry) would be upset that they have a lesbian daughter in the 1980s, but the way they’re written is embarrassing. Joyce clings to the ridiculous belief that lesbians just need good heterosexual sex to “cure” them, so much so that she tries to send her daughter back to the man who tried to kill her. She’s so one-note over-the-top that you can’t take her seriously, which undermines the movie. Foster’s dismal performance also does “Christy” no favors. He has two modes, a faux Southern charm reminiscent of Foghorn Leghorn, and jealous, violent rage. He’s reduced to yet another biopic cliché, because as written, there’s no way you’d believe Martin would marry this man who was twice her age, even out of convenience. Wever and Foster are good actors, so again, the script must be blamed. If you don’t know Martin’s story, “Christy” might work better for you. There were audible gasps when this “Million Dollar Baby”-style drama veered into “Star 80” territory. Michôd handles this graphic outburst of domestic violence like a slasher movie, but Sweeney’s acting in this sequence showcases Martin’s defiant resilience. Not even a blatantly obvious “stand up and cheer”-seeking speech at James’s sentencing can derail her performance. In fact, Sweeney is swimming upstream throughout, doing her best to carry this movie through its endless montages and its interminable 135 minute runtime. The boxing scenes aren’t very good, but outside the ring, her performance is impressive. She makes you feel Christy’s cringing discomfort when her trainer and the boxing promoters demand she present a more glamorous look. It’s as if Sweeney is telegraphing her male fans’ likely response to the more earthy look she employs here. Some welcome support for Sweeney comes from a subtle performance by Katy O’Brian as Lisa Holewyne, Martin’s real-life competitor and friend, and a hilariously accurate cameo by “The Wire”’s Chad Coleman as Don King. O’Brian brings a realistic note of class to her scenes, and Coleman is so good that you’ll long for more screentime. The first woman boxer to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated deserves a better movie. Speaking of better movies about women boxers, you should bypass this and check out the Claressa Shields biopic, “The Fire Inside.” Rachel Morrison’s 2024 directorial debut got only a scintilla of this film’s press, yet it’s a splendid example of how to do a boxing biopic right. ★1/2 CHRISTY Directed by David Michôd. Written by Michôd, Mirrah Foulkes. Starring Sydney Sweeney, Ben Foster, Merritt Wever, Katy O’Brien, Chad Coleman, Ethan Embry. At AMC Boston Common, suburbs. 135 min. R (graphic violence, profanity, drug use) Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.
