Echoes of Darren Aronofsky's 2008 Mickey Rourke-led drama The Wrestler creep out from the shadows in the surprisingly emotional documentary The Cage Fighter from director Jeff Unay. Previously a visual effects artist for films like Avatar, Unay enters the documentary arena with the tale of Joe Carman, an aging family man who continues cage fighting well past his prime and despite promises to the contrary made to his wife and children. By day, Carman works for the Seattle ferry system, by night he sneaks off to amateur ultimate fighting matches—hardly a crafty plan when he returns home with eyes swollen shut, broken fingers and the like.
Carman cuts a sympathetic figure, at once in love with family life but unable to let go of his past, even as he risks losing his wife and kids. It's hard not to sympathize as he implores them to understand fighting is the only place he feels like himself. They try; they can't.
Unay forgoes traditional narration in favor of silent observation with full access to Carman's family and gritty portrayals of real-life matches and their aftermath. Carman, meanwhile, tries to define a fighter's mentality alongside his trainer and fellow fighters even as he contends with head injuries, the ever-present feel of emptiness and his unraveling family; his wife is ill with some unnamed disease, his kids are already aware he can't be relied upon.
On the one hand, it's easy to want Carman to do what he says he will. On the other, who hasn't felt the cold sting of regret and lost dreams? It's possible he's really just trying to minimize regret, though he does rack up a whole lot more along the way.
8
+ Riveting and emotional
– Payoff feels unsatisfying
The Cage Fighter
Directed by Unay
Center for Contemporary Arts, NR, 81 min.
