When a film about boxing opens with a shot identical to one that opens Scorsese’s masterpiece ‘Raging Bull’ it sets itself an almost impossibly high bar to match. But in Salvable, writer and co-director Bjorn Franklin soon parts ways with treading the same path. Toby Kebbell is Sal, a boxer whose best days are behind him yet strives to make a living from the sport. Still living in a depressed small town ( Barry, South Wales ad far from its ‘Gavin & Stacy’ image) he barely scrapes a living as a boxer and supplements it with working a day job as a carer in an OAP home and very good he is at too with perhaps this being his real vocation. But his aspirations as a boxer are further exacerbated by a fractious relationship with his ex-wife, attempts to rebuild a relationship with his often resentful teenage daughter and then his former sparring partner Vince (Shia LaBeouf) comes back into his life after serving a prison sentence.
This has all the makings of an intense human drama and Kebbell has always been a terrific actor with these grounded in reality type roles as he tussles with his troubles whilst always trying to do the right thing. But its LaBeouf’s Vince who will throw a spanner in the works embroiling him in easy money bare knuckle boxing brawls where Sal easily wins but steps back from brutally with his own innate humanity preventing him from finishing his opponent. Perhaps its that which has prevented him from truly making it as a professional boxer.
But it’s the film introducing an unnecessary crime subplot that takes it away from where the real interest is with Sal’s relationship with his daughter Molly ( a terrific Kila Lord Cassidy) in several scenes that have a realism and pathos to them. But it Vince’s unruly influence that will lead to an almost inevitable downward spiral for Sal.
Toby Kebbell continues to balance a career between big screen blockbusters (Kong, War for the Planet of the Apes, Hurricane Heist) with more dramatically demanding roles of which Salvable is his latest and he carries the role with his usual aplomb. LaBeouf too, though often hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons) has also stepped away from the blockbusters (Transformers, Indiana Jones.) for far more demanding roles and here demonstrating an ear for accents (here it’s an Irish brogue) and together both actors make (terrific on screen pairing.
Salvable is very much the low budget independent film that both actors plus a uniformly good supporting cast led by James Cosmo and Elaine Cassidy ( real life mother to her on screen daughter Molly) and is a testament to name actors bringing attention to such films that deserve to be seen and Salvable, though far from perfect, is worth seeing.
related feature : The story behind the making of Coppola’s ‘Megalopolis’
related feature : Gael García Bernal & Diego Luna were hilarious talking about their great new series, ‘La Maquina’
We chatted to Toby Kebbell about boxing, Shia Labeouf and blockbusters….
Here’s the Salvable trailer……
The post Salvable – REVIEW appeared first on Any Good Films.
from Any Good Films https://ift.tt/U6MpO9V
