To achieve arc for this completely made-up character, (played by Meg Ryan,) this Jackie Kallen is a Boxing Promoter’s Executive Assistant suffering delusions of grandeur. She is not hitting the glass ceiling, but the viewer is asked to believe she is correct to take her girlfriend’s advice: find an elevator and start pushing buttons, as all that is left for her on her high-heeled path is up. If Against The Ropes had hit its mark, the overview would have been that one woman, in the right circumstances and with the right athletes, could punch her way onto the list of top ranked boxing managers, if she had the right stuff and the gumption to stay with the thought. Instead, this script was cobbled together with notions of what would sell, instead of what would be art. Given the total disinclination of the producers to allow anything of Jackie Kallen to shine through onto the screen in Against The Ropes, this movie didn’t get much attention to craft after the initial pitch and treatment. The entire cast is OK, and the dialogue is OK and the message is OK. OK is not what most movie-goers are waiting to feel at the movies. OK is not sufficient. Is that ever what a move strives to give to its viewers? Movie makers strives to achieve fairly high levels of satisfaction, if not actually capturing memorable moments, characters and quotes.

As this flick is another movie ‘based on’ the life of someone special—this time a woman sparring for position and clout in the hyper-masculine environment of boxing—one would think an inside peek at this admittedly viscious profession would make any woman’s apparent success admirable. Jackie Kallan does exist, and her career is not over, as she cameos as a reporter in this film very loosely based on her struggles as a manager of athletes, found, nurtured and helped to become boxing champions. Real life Jackie Kallen is a grandmother now, after raising her two sons with her husband of thirty years, which she divorced. Her early career in Detroit saw stints as a journalist and TV and radio personality. In the mid-seventies, she jumped from sports writer to public relations for Thomas Hearns. She girded her loins when she decided to try her hand at managing, and was successful in bringing several fighters to reasonable levels of boxing mastery. Kallen found a woman boxer and she did a turn as commissioner for the International Female Boxers Association. Her awards and honors during this time won her the ‘queen’ of boxing moniker. All of these facts would have made for great pieces of a good movie. None of it is used, really, other than that she was a woman in the ruthless world of boxing.

Kallen is also a motivational speaker, appearing around the country. Her web site proclaims success is not acquired with magic words or shortcuts. The list of her 10 ‘rounds’ to success have an interesting final three thoughts. Smile a lot; this is one of your best tools. Use good grammar and big words; it intimidates people (in a positive way!) and Package yourself well; always look as good as possible. There you are--OK advice, if one wishes to develop a self-serving image. OK approach to life, when one is looking for OK results. Actually, this theme permeates Against The Ropes, leaving an aftertaste the next day seemingly devoid of the usual meanderings of the memory in which random scenes or snippets of the ‘moral of the story’ further entertain. Oh yeah, Omar Epps is in this cast, as is the venerable Charles S. Dutton. They are not bad in their portrayals, given the script. The script makes it clear that they are not essential to Kallen’s success.  The viewer is then forgiven any forgetfulness of surrounding these characters. That indifference to these fine actors or the composites they represent of real people in Kallen’s life upon reflection, is not OK.