Journeyman

Middleweight world champion Matty Burton collapses at home after defending his title. He has a brain haemorrhage. He survives, but his speech, memory and control of anger are damaged. His wife has to look at him as if at a stranger. Paddy Considine wrote, directed and plays Matty. Jodie Whittaker plays his wife. The film finishes with the boxing template in its first ten minutes; the subject is not the fight but what follows. The boxing scenes are short and almost documentary in form. It is Considine's second film as a director; his first, Tyrannosaur, worked the same vein of domestic violence and recovery. The telling is patient: speech therapy, relearning daily tasks and friends drifting away are all given in detail. Its hardest idea is who carries the burden of care, and that it has nothing to do with love. It had limited distribution in Britain. Who it is for: viewers who like British social drama and stories of recovery. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a sports film; very little time is spent in the ring.