Chuck

A film set in New Jersey. Chuck Wepner is a liquor salesman. By day he carries orders to shops, at night he boxes. He is not a good boxer. But he is durable; he is cut in every fight, he bleeds, and he stays up. His nickname is the Bayonne Bleeder. An offer comes in 1975. He will fight the world champion. Nobody gives him a chance. The fight goes nearly the full fifteen rounds and Chuck puts the champion down in one of them. He loses. But one member of the audience is watching. A year later a film appears. The subject is familiar; a boxer nobody knows fights the champion. Chuck claims it. He declares himself the source of that film, tells it in bars, and the town knows him. From there the film becomes a story of collapse. Cocaine, invented stories, an audition, a divorce and a prison sentence. There is a lawsuit as well. Years later Chuck sues the film's maker and the case is settled. What the narrative is interested in is not boxing but borrowed fame: Chuck is trying to live not his own life but the story made out of him. The narrative does not clear him. He treats his family badly and the film shows it directly. Liev Schreiber carried the project for years; his name is on the screenplay too. Liev Schreiber, Elisabeth Moss, Naomi Watts, Ron Perlman and Jim Gaffigan are in the cast. Philippe Falardeau directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes sports drama drawn from real life. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a story of rising; the film describes no triumph and its central figure is hard to like.