Cinema: Critique In Brief: An Indie Knockout

All right, it's Rocky redux. A nobody rises to boxing glory--same long odds, same grizzled trainer, same love interest (called Adrian!). But was there ever a boxing movie that had the two combatants cuffing each other and, when they clinch, one saying to the other, "I love you"?

You could call Girlfight a new kind of corny. But this isn't the heroic treacle of the NBC Olympics. Like the better indie films, Girlfight dares to play sentiment straight. It makes boxing a civilizing occupation; learning to do something well turns a girl with too much attitude into a woman--almost a lady. The camera performs some fancy footwork, but the film is closer to John Sayles than to Martin Scorsese. It gives its fine actors room to breathe and behave--and in Michelle Rodriguez's case, glow.

In an early, glowering closeup, she eyes the camera: two threats, framed in mascara. This is a face made to smolder--the young Brando womanized. She knows she can hold a movie's center just by being onscreen. And she grows with the role. A star is born? Better: an actress. Watch out, Jennifer Lopez. Rodriguez is a challenger who could be the next champ.

--By Richard Corliss