Halle Berry is an actor who’s known for prolific work mostly because she works on so few projects. Her new sports drama Bruised finds her at her busiest and best in years, choosing a project that has the potential to become here masterwork.
It’s been nearly 20 years since Halle Berry’s Best Actress win for Monster’s Ball, and this is probably the grittiest thing she’s made since then. Even for an actor defined by her work in action films (like the X-Men, Kingsman, John Wick and James Bond franchises, to name a few) this is among the most intense action she’s ever done. And it’s in a sports movie.
Berry plays Jackie Justice, a disgraced MMA fighter who abandoned a UFC match and hasn’t had a professional fight for six years. When a new promoter creating a league (Toronto’s Shamier Anderson) asks her to fight for $20,000, she gets a chance to win back the respect of her family, colleagues and young, fatherless son.
Even with the clue of “fighting”, if you don’t know what sport or events MMA or UFC reference, stay as far away from the film as possible. The mixed martial arts cage matches are brutal to watch, though somewhat sensitized compared to live events seen on TV.
The movie depicts the sport as ruthless and uncompromising as it truly is with gut punches, swollen eyes, head jabs and all. It’s hard violence, yes, but it’s never gross or so bloody you’re forced to look away from the screen.
What’s most impressive is Berry’s fight choreography and her execution in the ring. Her performance as Justice is engrossing enough as we see her fight ordinary battles in her life, but her ability to show character in both training and the 20-minute climactic final fight are seriously impressive. The fact she also filmed this and could do training this aggressive at age 53 is more impressive still - she’s very believable as an elite athlete.
But the best performers are most of the supporting players. Stephen McKinley Henderson and the aforementioned Anderson as her trainer and promoter have a ton of fun, and Sheila Atim as lead trainer Buddhakhan is a revelation. Her wisdom, tenacity and ruthlessness make her a great drive for Jackie to always do better. That’s why more from Buddhakhan’s character is the thing that’s clearly missing most.
More so is the character of Lady Killer, Jackie’s opponent in the final fight. Killer doesn’t have a single line of spoken dialogue until that final scene, meaning we never learn who she is, what she wants, why the fight matters to her or why Jackie should be scared to have her as an opponent.
In the nearly two and a half hour runtime (the longest of all this year’s Gala Presentations) these two characters have the most missing. That’s especially sad because Atim is the best actor in the film. There is, however, hope this can still be fixed.
While I’m reviewing this film, it’s openly screening as a work in progress at TIFF this year and will likely be tweaked and re-edited before it’s general release when most people will get to see it. I hope more attention will be given to the supporting female characters to take this film from good to great.
Out of respect for the creative process, this review won’t carry a numeric score, yet. But I greatly look forward to seeing the final product when Bruised comes out on Netflix (who acquired the film rights days before its TIFF premiere) early next year. It’s a sucker punch I’ll be watching for - and you should too.
Bruised
2hrs 18mins. Sports Drama.
Directed by and Starring Halle Berry.
Also starring Adan Canto, Sheila Atim, Stephen McKinley Henderson and Shamier Anderson.
Featured as part of TIFF 2020, having streamed September 12-19, 2020. General release is scheduled with Netflix in early 2021.
This review is part of Oakville News 12-part series covering the 45th Toronto International Film Festival. Read here about watching all 57 movies at this year’s TIFF. A full roundup of reviews from all movies at TIFF so far can be read here.
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