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****This review contains spoilers, however, it isn’t anything you can’t find with a Google search****
There’s a rising trend in female athlete movies. They all seem to be very hollow. Last year’s Queen of the Ring about Mildred Burke, the first female wrestler in the 1930’s-50s, was such a rich story, an award should be given on the grounds of not creating a story with the movie.
Much like with Queen, Christy is a powerful story of professional boxing’s first female celebrity, Christy Martin, that it seems almost fool-proof. From literal rags to riches, fighting just because she liked it, Christy was a small town basketball girl who boxed for money. She was a closeted lesbian who got mixed up with her trainer, forced into marriage, only to have him attempt to murder her after she planned to leave him for a former girlfriend.
Sounds like a pretty good movie, yeah? Everyone loves an underdog story. Not just that, but a true story about a woman who almost single-handedly brought the world’s attention to female boxing when it was dominated by men for decades. How does this movie NOT work?
Well … let me tell you.
Sydney Sweeney as Christy Martin in Christy
According to the movie (and I want to emphasize that: this review is based on the movie’s representation) Christy Salters (later Martin, played by Sydney Sweeney), didn’t have an interest in boxing, but she was a natural. Her family didn’t approve, but, why not? Just keep clear of those ladies, beat up anyone you want.
She wins a bunch of fights, meets with trainer Jim Martin (Ben Foster, in a tour de force performance as a slimeball) who promises to make her boxing dreams come true. After a little while of working the circuits, it does. Yeah, they’re not really big names, but in a world where people love watching sweaty men clobber each other to oblivion, this southern sassy lassy with a killer hook is doing just fine. She smack talks everyone and then whips them in the ring. Out of jealousy from her former lover, Rosie (Jess Gabor), Jim proposes marriage to Christy, and she says yes. He promises the world to her and a meeting with Don King (played excellently by Chad Coleman) to help move her career to the stratosphere. A few VHS connection hiccups later … it does.
Christy then goes on to talk more trash than a garbageman, disrespect lesbians and beat them senseless in the ring. At about the hour and 20 minute mark, I was really trying to wonder if there was more to this movie. As someone who doesn’t follow sports, I didn’t know who Christy Martin is, and based on the movie: It really seems like she didn’t have any major hurdles in her life. Yeah, we all have ups and downs, but Christy makes it seem like it was mainly ups. I was having a hard time feeling sympathy because literally the whole movie was shit talking and kicking ass. We’re supposed to feel something for her match against Lisa Holwyne (Katy O’Brian) because Christy does some serious homophobic talk to her and Holwyne takes it in stride. Holwyne even says “Good luck” before their match (but it’s a boxing match …) and Christy punches her to outer space.
It isn’t until her Laila Ali (Naiomi Graham) bout where we see Christy lose. Mind you, this match was in 2003 and in the movie timeframe, this is about 15 years and the start of the third act. Then Christy’s life spirals out of control: Sex videos, drugs, Jim talking to her parents behind her back: All the stuff we needed in the last hour. This drives her to go back to Rosie, the only woman who truly cares for Christy. Fueled on jealous rage, Jim attempts to kill her, fails and Christy winds up getting married to Holwyne, who, for some reason, visits her in the hospital. The End.
Christy Martin (L) and Sweeney as Christy Martin (R)
If I were Sweeney, I would be pissed. Not just a little, but a lot. She went through a lot of training to get the body size and shape of Christy Martin: Playing her through a number of years to look amateur to professional. Sweeney had to get down Christy’s specific style, mannerisms and gait, only to have the movie come out looking like a college film editor’s sophomore project.
Ben Foster, mainly known for his supporting roles, stands out as the gross, bloated Jim Martin, who propels Christy’s career to stardom. He constantly looks like he knows something she doesn’t. If nothing else, see the movie for him. Arguably the best and most intense scene in the movie is the attempted killing. The stunt choreographer should be proud, because that was the best takeaway from this.
Ben Foster as the gross Jim Martin.
To say Christy was a flat feeling movie would be an understatement. Much like the before mentioned Queen of the Ring, there’s way too much story to tell. Explaining a whole life in two hours is impossible. There’s only a few movies that get it right (Rocketman for example), but only showing the highs and barely touching the lows gives the audience no sympathy for the character. Why should I care about Christy Martin in this movie? From what I can tell, it looked pretty great up until a certain point. She was a natural fighter, shot her mouth off and beat the tar out of all the girls. Her only downfall (in the movie) was that she was leaving her husband for her former girlfriend. She never loses until the end.
The problem with Christy falls in wanting to show she’s one tough woman that can’t lose. So, she doesn’t. There’s a great story here and showing the life one handed leaves the audience wondering why you should care. The producers want you to believe this is a TKO in the first round, but there’s five rounds left.
Christy is now playing in theaters
Director: David Michôd
Writers: Mirrah Foulkes, Katherine Fugate, David Michôd
Starring: Sydney Sweeney, Ben Foster, Katy O’Brian
Genre: Drama/Sport
Rating: R
Runtime: 135 mins
Classic American Movies 
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