Southpaw is a 2015 American sports drama film directed by Antoine Fuqua, written by Kurt Sutter and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Forest Whitaker and Rachel McAdams.

The film follows a boxer who sets out to get his life back on track after losing his wife to gun violence and later his young daughter to child protective services.

Billy "the Great" Hope is a professional boxer, and the reigning champion in the Light Heavyweight division with an Orthodox stance and a won-loss record of 42-0, living in New York City with his wife, Maureen, and their only daughter, Leila.

During his match against Darius Jones at Madison Square Garden, Maureen is scared as Billy takes several horrific hits to the face, resulting in profuse bleeding out of his eye.

Billy wins the match by knockout and retains the light heavyweight title, despite nasty injuries.

Billy wakes up in the hospital to learn that Leila is being put in the care of Child Protective Services officer Angela Rivera.

As he starts to make amends in his life, Billy continues visiting Leila, and his persistence wins her over.

Jordan wants to book a fight between the two within six weeks, knowing that Billy will not have enough time to train.

Noting his efforts to turn his life around, the judge grants Billy custody of Leila, and she moves back in with him.

Visiting Maureen's grave together, Billy tells Leila he is going to fight again and grants her wish of letting her remain present.

After the fight, Leila meets Billy in the dressing room, where they hug for the first time since Maureen's death.

He'll play a world champion boxer who really hits a hard bottom, and has to fight to win back his life for his young daughter.

I love that the title refers to Marshall being a lefty, which is to boxing what a white rapper is to hip hop; dangerous, unwanted, and completely unorthodox.

[14] On December 13, 2010, DreamWorks acquired the script, with Eminem eyed to play the lead role,[13] however the following August the studio dropped the project.

[20] Eminem would later praise Gyllenhaal's performance, noting that "Jake smashed it" in an interview with Zane Lowe.

The site's critical consensus reads, "Jake Gyllenhaal delivers an impressively committed performance, but Southpaw beats it down with a dispiriting drama that pummels viewers with genre clichés.

[28] Soren Anderson of The Seattle Times gave the film two and a half stars out of four, saying "Southpaw, a boxing movie with a theme of redemption, is redeemed by the performances of its two main actors, Jake Gyllenhaal and Forest Whitaker.

"[29] Ty Burr of The Boston Globe gave the film two and a half stars out of four, saying "This is a genre with especially sturdy bones, and when Southpaw connects, which is more often than you might expect, you feel it down to your toes.

"[31] Steven Rea of The Philadelphia Inquirer gave the film three out of four stars, saying "What keeps this cornball business from getting out of hand is the commitment of Gyllenhaal, whose performance is fierce and muscular, in and out of the ring.

"[35] Benjamin Nugent of The New York Times has compared the film to Robert De Niro stating, "Pity Jake Gyllenhaal, who despite getting shredded for Southpaw, could not outbox the shadow of Robert De Niro's Raging Bull performance.

"[36] Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a C+, saying "Just as director Antoine Fuqua starts to close in on something interesting and unexpected, he retreats to the safety of his corner and gives us what we've seen too many times before: a predictable flurry of melodramatic jabs.

"[38] James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film three out of four stars, saying "Southpaw isn't content with presenting a gallery of clichéd characters.

[43] This was Horner's final score (it was recorded after The 33, although Southpaw was released first); he was killed in a plane crash on June 22, 2015.