Box is clearly not a film about boxing despite a number of really well-crafted scenes in the ring and the gym. The kind of scenes where you can smell the sweat and the anger and, sometimes, the fear of getting beaten up. But, that aside, it could have been named 'Theater' just as well because the other focus of the movie is this artsy milieu with its dusty stages and intellectual pretentiousness.
So, he's a 19 year old boxer with good looks and low prospects, she's a small-town actress in her mid-30 with an annoyingly histrionic husband who probably cheats on her. He's got nothing to lose, she's lost the will to pretend, and they allow themselves to get caught in each other's gravity, so to speak. This is what this movie is really about and everything else is just background. While it may seem less than enough to justify yet another "love comes where you least expect it" story, the writer/director achieves such level of intensity in showing the chemistry between the two, with such economy of words, that the movie fully holds its own. The two leads are excellent, especially Hilda Peter whose amazing screen presence is crucial to creating the magic.
So, he's a 19 year old boxer with good looks and low prospects, she's a small-town actress in her mid-30 with an annoyingly histrionic husband who probably cheats on her. He's got nothing to lose, she's lost the will to pretend, and they allow themselves to get caught in each other's gravity, so to speak. This is what this movie is really about and everything else is just background. While it may seem less than enough to justify yet another "love comes where you least expect it" story, the writer/director achieves such level of intensity in showing the chemistry between the two, with such economy of words, that the movie fully holds its own. The two leads are excellent, especially Hilda Peter whose amazing screen presence is crucial to creating the magic.