Sydney Sweeney digs deep, bulks up and transforms her appearance radically in « Christy, » the story of trailblazing boxer Christy Martin.
At one point deep into “Christy,” the boxer Christy Martin, played with ferocious commitment by Sydney Sweeney, describes how she feels being in the ring. It’s not what you’d expect.
It’s where she finds quiet, she says.
Such a line at the beginning of this two-hour plus film would have been laughable, given that the ring is obviously hectic, loud, bloody — and terrifying, to most of the world. But when Martin says it, we get it. The ring is where Christy can be in control. Outside — and especially at home, in the bedroom — is where life gets truly scary.
“Christy,” directed by David Michôd, begins as a solid sports biopic, the based-on-true-events story of Martin, a hot-tempered teen from coal-mining country who fell into boxing and became a trailblazer for women in the sport. That’s the triumph part.
But then comes the tragedy: the horrific abuse that she suffered at the hands of her trainer and husband, Jim Martin. And that’s of course where the boxing montages stop. In its final act, “Christy” goes darker than anything we’re prepared for.
The mashup of genres may feel a bit tonally rough, but it ultimately works, not least because of its unifying factor: Sweeney, who imbues her no-holds-barred portrayal of Martin with both sweetness and rage, with brio and real vulnerability. The actor’s background in MMA fighting was clearly essential for the role, for which she bulked up considerably (a la De Niro in “Raging Bull”) and trained extensively.
