1 of 5 | Christy (Sydney Sweeney) is triumphant in the ring, held up by Jeff (Bryan Hibbard) while Don King (Chad Coleman) watches in “Christy,” in theaters Friday. Photo courtesy of Black Bear
Real-life former boxer Christy Salters has an impressive life story. Unfortunately, the biopic Christy, in theaters Friday, lacks the execution to deliver a film on the same level as its subject.
Played by Sydney Sweeney, Christy is seen winning her first local boxing match in 1989. The win garners the attention of some promoters who offer her an even more lucrative fight.
Those promoters introduce Christy to Jim Martin (Ben Foster), who becomes her manager and future husband. The film chronicles key moments in her life from 1995, 2003 and 2010.
There is so much to Salters’ story that the film is all over the place and struggles to balance the successes and abuses she suffered.
As one of the first professional female boxers, Christy paved the way for an entire segment of the industry.
She was also gay in a time and place, West Virginia, that did not accept her sexuality. Her own mother, Joyce (Merritt Wever), disapproves and pushes Christy toward men whether they treat her appropriately or not.
In the film, Jim essentially blackmails Christy into marrying him with the threat of exposing her as gay. Then he sabotages her career and becomes physically abusive.
Throughout the movie, Christy is forced to prove herself to men in the industry, even Jim at first, who dismiss and underestimate her. These scenes reduce real pioneering to movie shorthand, as if every sexist boxer or coach can be amalgamated in one scene.
This quickly leads to the other cliche where Jim says Christy works harder than most of the men he trains. That was probably true but it’s the sports movie cliche of the underdog who just puts in enough effort to earn their shot, à la Rocky, Rudy, etc.
Christy explicitly says in the movie she thinks she’s found her “thing,” which most people go their whole lives without discovering. That may have been how Salters felt, but it’s the movie’s job to show us, not tell us.
To be fair, Sweeney does capture the joy Christy feels in the ring. She also makes some of Christy’s taunting of her opponents endearing.
The script by Mirrah Foulkes and director David Michôd shows how Jim’s manipulations begin subtly and awkwardly. He screens her calls and dangles the hope of a meeting with Don King (Chad L. Coleman), which she ultimately earns on her own.
Jim even says, “If you leave me, I’ll kill you” which becomes more foreboding the longer they are together. He at various times sells Christy to fight random men in motel rooms and gets her hooked on cocaine.
One particularly disorienting choice the filmmakers made is to show some of Jim’s misdeeds after the fact. It turns out a provocative soundbite Christy gave in an interview was something Jim told her to say.
Jim and Christy argue about it during a sparring session between, in case it wasn’t clear Jim is actually passive-aggressively undermining her.
It is even more odd when the film casually shows Jim forcing Christy to make pornographic videos long after he’s been meddling in her career and getting her hooked on drugs. That’s such a major betrayal, it warrants paying at least as much attention to as the motel fights or cocaine.
The film shows how even a professional fighter can wind up in an abusive relationship. One scene of abuse is effectively shown at a distance in the hallway, with the majority of violence only heard off-screen. Other scenes are appropriately graphic to document the extent of Christy’s injuries.
Once King enters the story, there is an interesting cycle where Jim has taken advantage of Christy, but King takes advantage of Jim because he’s way out of his depth with a real promoter. It’s clear Jim was always intimidated by successful women, or perhaps by any person with more potential than himself.
The real-life Salters, now going by her original surname again, is married to Lisa Holewyne, a one-time opponent played by Katy O’Brien in the film. In selecting historical bouts from ’95, ’03 and ’10 to anchor the narrative, it paints the film into a corner trying to cover too much too fast.
Biopics are a delicate balance encapsulating an entire life into two hours, sometimes three. Christy falls into the category of good story but confusing movie adaptation.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.
