This was a surprising movie. I was not expecting it to be that good. I really thought it was a long shot when the DVD started up and there were only two options – PLAY or CHAPTERS. It really had some deep thoughts behind it. On its surface, the story was only just about a boxer and his trainer working towards a title fight. But, this film is not another Rocky.

Fighting Tommy Riley ended up being a very good study of a very interesting relationship between a fighter, Tommy Riley, and his trainer. I knew before it was revealed what the big mystery was and what the trainer was hiding, but that did not take anything away from the story. I liked that the story ended without seeing the final match. The boxing was not the main point and it would have cheapened the story to have had Tommy win or lose the big, final match. There was plenty of boxing and some good fights to see, but the filmmaker did a good job not letting that overshadow the story.

There was some very good camera work with this film, too. All around the picture was very well put together. I would have enjoyed seeing more of the trainer’s back story and maybe even having a flashback or two to show it. It was a very interesting story potential that was not tapped. That is really the only reason why the movie didn’t score higher.