ROUGH JUSTICE (BRUISED)

There's an air of desperation about Halle Berry's directorial debut, the Mixed Martial Arts drama 'Bruised' - as if she is a movie star with something to prove.

Like the character she plays, Berry has had better days and there was a time when she appeared at the peak of her powers.

Early in her career, there was an eyecatching role alongside Warren Beatty in the political satire 'Bulworth' followed by an Oscar winning performance for the death row tale 'Monster's Ball'.

She was also an 'X Men' star and played a major character in a Bond movie.

But then her star waned after the disappointment of 'Catwoman' and ever since then, she has not commanded the high profile roles she once enjoyed.

Berry's character in 'Bruised,' Jackie Justice is a former MMA champ from Newark whose best days seem to be behind her.

Once a big deal in the sport, she famously lost face and the plot during her 11th bout, committing the sin of leaving the cage after a bad pummeling beforw it was declared over.

Six years later and living with her heavy drinking boyfriend and manager Adan Canto's Desi, Jackie has lost her desire for the sport and is working as a cleaner in rich people's homes.

She quits one job when the owner's teenage son tries to take a sneaky shot of her on his phone as she is changing out of her cleaning gear into her civilian clothes.

Enraged, she destroys the phone and storms out of the house before she is sacked.

After flying off the handle about her losing her job, Desi takes her to an underground illegal fight club where he is supposedly scouting a promising fighter.

However it isn't long until Jackie is cajoled into taking on Gabi Garcia's Randi "Werewolf" Jones who is dispatching a string of bloodied female fighters that she towers over.

Goaded by the Werewolf, Jackie flies into a rage and literally wipes the floor with her in front of the baying, mostly male crowd.

Among those watching is Shamier Anderson's promoter Immaculate who wastes little time in offering a bruised and bloodied Jackie a way back into a MMA career by training at his gym.

On her return home from the fight, however, she and Desi are confronted by her mother, Adriane Lenox's Angel McQueen who has a young boy in tow

The boy, Danny Boyd Jr is Jackie's son Manny and has just lost his musician father who has been gunned down.

Insisting he must live with Desi and Jackie, Angel leaves Manny for them to raise but he doesn't utter a word - leaving them to wonder if he has suffered a major trauma.

Jackie struggles to establish a rapport with a boy she once gave up as she juggles training with the demands of parenting.

She also struggles to return to the top in the sport under the guidance of Sheila Atim's no nonsense, Sanskrit chanting trainer Buddhakan and Stephen McKinley Henderson"s Pops.

But with Immaculate focused on arranging a high comeback flyweight title fight in Atlantic City with Valentina Shevchenko's Argentinian MMA superstar Lucy 'Ladykiller' Chavez, an initially sceptical Buddhakan starts to see her potential and a bond grows.

However can Jackie dedicate herself to her comeback and overcome her fears about a return to the cage while also raising a troubled, young boy?

And how will she manage a deteriorating relationship with the controlling, heavy drinking Desi?

It's easy to understand why Berry would have been drawn to screenwriter Michelle Rosenfarb's gritty comeback fighting tale after Nick Cassavetes dropped out of making it with Blake Lively.

There are shades of Sylvester Stallone's underdog take 'Rocky' about 'Bruised' - although the film it may most remind viewers of is Darren Aronofsky's 'The Wrestler' in which Mickey Rourke's ageing fighter tries to eke out a living while wallowing in the lower echelons of the sport.

Like Rourke's Oscar nominated role, Jackie offers Berry a chance to remind audiences of her acting prowess after years of not quite flying as high she once looked like doing.

She shows a similar commitment and hunger as Rourke in the role.

However the film, while showing flashes of power, is too long to really make an impact and us far too reliant on all too familiar, well worn fighting story arcs.

As a director, Berry comfortably handles the fight sequences and with the help of Frank F De Marco's cinematography shows she has an eye for gritty streetwise drama.

However sometimes the drama is just too long drawn out - love scenes unfold with all the urgency of a tortoise and family rows linger on well after their expiry date and appear too geared towards being awards season bait.

As a result, the film feels like it could have benefitted from at least 25 minutes shaved off it.

Apart from throwing herself wholeheartedly and impressively into the physical demands of her MMA role, Berry elicits decent performances from Canto, Anderson, Lenox, Atim and McKinley Henderson.

She also deftly handles Boyd Jr who is an effective screen presence as a quiet little boy and uses it to great effect.

And while 'Bruised' is far from steady on its legs, there's enough going on in Berry's feature to keep the audience invested in Jackie's comeback fight which we get to see in all its five round grisly glory.

To its credit, the film wisely avoids the irritating, overplayed heart tugging of boxing dramas like 'The Champ'.

Nevertheless while 'Bruised' lacks originality but its director and star gives the story some heart.

And while it narrowly loses on points, it's a noble fight that suggests there's potentially more to come from Berry, if she is given the opportunity as an actor and a more disciplined director.

('Bruised' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on November 17, 2021 before being made available for streaming on Netflix on November 24, 2021)