Christy Martin rose to fame and prominence in the 1990s as the pioneering champion and personality in the burgeoning sport of women’s boxing. Promoted by the legendary Don King and fighting on Mike Tyson undercards, she helped to put women’s boxing on the map. A new film shares her trials and tribulations during her rise. Christy chronicles Martin’s (Sydney Sweeney) rise to becoming America’s most well known female boxer starting in a West Virginia coal town into the sport following some local exhibitions at state fairs. Martin is linked with trainer James Martin (Ben Foster) and turns pro. She and James eventually marry but her rise coincides with a volatile relationship between the two.
This film seeks to chronicle the rise of Martin as a pioneer in female boxing while she simultaneously dealt with a controlling and abuse husband and director David Michôd achingly succeeds by perfectly capturing the way in which an abuser gradually ensnares a victim into their web. Martin and James’ relationship begins with James slowly manipulating Martin emotionally, emphasizing that he is integral to to her professional development and insisting that for that to continue and succeed, she must always do as he says. James also utilizes the textbook abusive tactics of isolating her from close friends and loved ones, driving a wedge between Martin and her high school girlfriend Rosie (Jess Gabor), becoming close to Martin’s emotionally manipulative and homophobic mother Joyce (Merritt Wever), emotionally vacillating between being loving and angry toward Martin, and finally graduating to physical abuse over time. Seeing the dynamic between the two play out over time at a realistic pace with the signs both subtle and overt makes Martin’s ordeal feel more authentic and real, creating an empathetic protagonist in Martin and strengthening the film’s message. When their relationship finally comes to a head at the end of its life cycle, Michôd’s decision to film it as straightforward and brutal as possible aides in this realism, painting a stark picture of what domestic violence is on a visceral, human level. For some viewers it may be too much, but Martin‘s perseverance is made more plain by also depicting her lowest points.
It goes without saying that the performances of the actors is integral in what Christy depicts onscreen and led by Sweeney, the ensemble succeeds in doing so. Sweeney disappears into her role as the titular character, effectively portraying how a young woman could find herself in the thrall of an older, manipulative abuser slowly but surely. We see her confidence and self-assuredness slowly chipped away by James after the seeds first being planted by her mother, so that the dichotomy between an arrogant athlete and abused wife makes sense. In real life, Christy had to switch from her brash public persona to the cowering wife in private and Sweeney is able to do the same as an actress in the film. Foster is as disgusting as James as Sweeney is sympathetic as Martin, masterfully capturing James’ simmering jealousy of Martin’s prowess as a boxer and how it plays into his desire to control her and assert his dominance as her husband due to his ability to match her as a person. Foster portrays the nuance and subtly of the character just as much as the over the top moments of his abuse and anger which is integral in making James a real person who can serve as a cautionary tale rather than a caricature of a monster that is easy to simply hate. Christy wishes to bend toward realism versus sensationalism and simplicity and Foster’s underrated skill as a top notch character actor allows the film to pull this off. A nod must also be given to Wever as Martin‘s frustrating mother, whose preference to have Martin remained closeted, even at the expense of her happiness and safety, makes her maybe as bad as James. Wever is able to capture the disappointment in having such a neglectful parent and the effect on Martin and where she ended up. Christy is a decent biopic that handles a sensitive topic well and features quality acting from its cast.
Image: Black Bear Pictures
