If you’re a fan of Rocky, sports-oriented dramas, or any story in which the underdog figures out how to turn his rotten lemons into delicious lemonade, we’ve got a new one for you to check out. 13th Round delivers a flurry of punches to its characters outside of the ring while never actually taking the fight inside of one. Much like astronomers studying black holes based on how light bends around them, this film prefers to tell its story by showing how the lives and relationships around our characters are affected (see: bent) by their choices rather than deciding the outcome based on who can knock the other guy out first.
Nate Jones (Tom Stevens) is a championship boxer who just won his first professional title by becoming the light heavyweight champion of the WABA. Everything seems to be going his way – He’s in love, he’s risen to the level of champion, and he’s about to sign a huge endorsement deal with an energy drink company that will change his life in a major way. And Nate’s life does indeed change in a major way. Unfortunately, not in the way that we expected.
Of course, we can’t allow our heroes to be heroes for the entire story. In fact, if that happened, nine out of ten times, there wouldn’t be a story. This means that our hero, Nate, has to hit a speed bump. For Nate, this speed bump comes very early in the film, in the form of getting caught in the middle of a hail of bullets that has nothing to do with him. To use an oft-repeated cliche from the film, he was in the “wrong place at the wrong time.” This leaves Nate unable to use his legs, effectively taking away his career and his future.
“…Nate’s life does indeed change in a major way. Unfortunately, not in the way that we expected…”
This life-altering incident leads Nate to a steep downward spiral directly into depression, via alcoholism, self-hatred, and a very foolish form of pride, deciding that his life is over and everyone else needs to ‘get over it’. He even turns on his own girlfriend, Mia (Morgan Taylor Campbell), out of the belief that he’s not good enough for her if he can’t be the championship boxer that he was when they met.
This same toxic behavior begins presenting itself in other characters in the film, including Nate’s stepfather Wade (Aleks Paunovic), his gym coach Bryce (Tahmoh Penikett), and his new coach that he meets later, Anton (Bradley Stryker). In his stepfather’s case, it was in the past, which he used to try and teach Nate. But in the cases of both Bryce and Anton, Nate becomes the catalyst that teaches them.
Co-writers Bradley Stryker and Michael Trainor do a nice job of making every action and every scene matter in this story, weaving them together into a tapestry that may require more than one viewing to fully digest.
If you’ve ever been in a situation where you felt that your life was over, you may want to watch 13th Round and reevaluate.
"…every action and every scene matter in this story..."
