This masterpiece tells the extremely sad tale of a once unstoppable World Champion boxer "Billy The Great" (Jake Gyllenhaal) falling from grace when his world is turned upside down when his wife Maureen (Rachel McAdams) gets shot and killed at a charity event, leaving him a devastated, helpless widower, with a daughter whom he loves but doesn't fully know how to care for. After losing his rock and voice of reason, his life soon spirals out of control, eventually losing his house, his contract, and even his daughter. After a seemingly endless chain of devastating events, he decides to get up and get his life (his daughter) back through joining a gym owned by a retired, once successful trainer (Forrest Whitaker). True to form, he has a more than bumpy start, but finally things start to look up when he shows the court that he's done well; he got a steady job at the gym, he's stopped with the alcohol, and he's ready to take care of his daughter.
Throughout the movie the viewer hears familiar voices. To name a few, The Weeknd plays in the background of the bedroom scene of him and his wife talking- a fantastic choice because not only does it show who the couple is, but the song itself is haunting and sexy, which sets the perfect tone for the scene; A new Eminem song plays in a montage of him training before the big "revenge" fight (Unfortunately.) While Eminem is a fantastic rapper and lyricist, this song is just awful. It's not catchy, its not clever, and its not very deep, which doesn't suit this movie at all. The choice of using Eminem is an obvious one, but the song feels misplaced and distracting. However, we end the movie with another familiar voice: Frank Ocean. After he wins the amazingly intense fight, he goes back to the dressing room to be greeted by the paparazzi, and then his daughter, who is a bit shaken after seeing her dad fight for the first time. He hugs her and we start to hear Frank Ocean's voice in the back, singing the beginning of "Wise Man." "I was so scared for you, it was so scary," she says. "Your mother would be so proud of you," Billy says muffled through tears, just as we hear the same line in the Frank Ocean song- A brilliant move. It was so beautifully personal that it almost felt like the song was written for that exact moment in their story. This scene, which made the movie the masterpiece that it is, wouldn't have been the same without the choice to use Wise Man. It was a perfect marriage of movie and music and I'm so glad I got to experience the magic.
Watch the whole scene here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRjgtht3sX0
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