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Pugilism, politics and national pride mix with the standard sports clichés in "Hands of Stone," an engaging biography of the boxer Roberto Durán.
Venezuelan-born writer-director Jonathan Jakubowicz enlists his countryman Edgar Ramirez ("Joy," "Point Break") to play Durán, the Panamanian street tough who learned boxing and rose to the top of the game. The movie shows Durán's rise through the eyes of Ray Arcel (Robert De Niro), who saw Durán fight in 1971 and was compelled to sign on as his trainer, working for free to assuage the New York mob (embodied here by John Turturro) who ran him out of the sport years earlier.
While Jakubowicz details Durán's rise in the ring and his courtship of his wife, Felicidad (Ana de Armas), much of the narrative gets split to Arcel's story, which is interesting only because De Niro is performing it. There's a subplot, dealing with Arcel's awkward reunion with his long-lost daughter (played by De Niro's daughter, Drena De Niro), that feels oddly shoehorned.
The movie, filmed partly in Panama, depicts how Durán's hatred of the United States — seen by Panamanians as an occupying force, thanks to the Panama Canal Zone — fueled his anger and his ferocious boxing style, particularly in his public rivalry with the American champ, Sugar Ray Leonard (Usher Raymond IV).
Jakubowicz falls into a lot of the sports-movie and biopic pitfalls. Watching Ramirez' Durán go from fighting trim to bloated success is depressingly familiar, as are the rags-to-riches scenes. (Do rich wives always have to dress in tacky tight purple pants, the way de Armas does here?)
The fight scenes are explosive, particularly when Durán's brute force runs up against Leonard's speed — and Raymond's dance skills are put to good use emulating Leonard's fast footwork. Those scenes, and the political overtones, carry "Hands of Stone" past the cliches into some gripping drama.
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HHH
'Hands of Stone'
Politics and punches mix well in this biography of boxer Roberto Durán.
Where • Theaters everywhere.
When • Opens Wednesday, Aug. 31.
Rating • R for language throughout and some sexuality/nudity.
Running time • 111 minutes.