What a messy life Christy Salters had before being true to herself. As trying to distinguish herself as a female professional boxer, she also tried to distance herself from her homosexuality, and then she only ended up being stuck with a toxic relationship for many years, though she was really fortunate considering how that could have costed her life.  

David Michôd’s latest film “Christy” attempts to present many ups and downs during several decades of Salter’s life and professional boxing career, but the overall result is rather disappointing for me. While there are some strong moments mainly thanks to its lead actress’ considerable commitment, these good moments are often undermined by a number of weak aspects including its uneven storytelling and weak characterization, and I was distracted more than once during my viewing.

Salters is played here by Sydney Sweeney, who has been more prominent since her Emmy-nominated supporting turn in HBO TV series “Euphoria”. I must confess that I became more aware of her only after watching “Immaculate” (2024) and “The Housemaid” (2025), but I can tell you at least that she has enough talent and presence on the whole, and her solid performance diligently carries the movie to the end.

The early part of the film is about how Salters began her professional boxing career in 1989. While she played for her high school basketball team in her hometown in West Virginia, she came to show more potential as a female boxer instead as shown from the opening scene, and this came to draw the attention from a promoter in Tennessee. While she hesitates at first, she eventually accepts this promoter’s proposal because she needs the money to gain more independence from her conservative parents, who are not so pleased about what has been going on between her and a certain close friend of hers.

This promoter in question subsequently introduces Salters to a coach named James V. Martin (Ben Foster). Although her first meeting with Martin is not that agreeable to say the least, Salters decides to prove herself more after being persuaded by her mother. Once she demonstrates her skill and pluck, Martin agrees to be her coach, and then he gets more involved with Salters mainly due to her ongoing sexual confusion.

In the end, Salters marries Martin, and he seems to give her everything he promised to her. Besides providing her a supposedly stable domestic life, he also gets her a number of good opportunities to advance her professional boxing career, and she does not disappoint him at all as becoming an almost undefeated athlete in her field during next several years. 

However, Martin also becomes quite abusive to Salters in one way or another, and this virulent tendency of his becomes all the worse when things do not go that well for both of them after she gets defeated by Laila Ali in 2003. He is willing to do anything for keeping Salters around him as long as possible, and we accordingly get several uncomfortable moments as Salters lets herself abused more by Martin.

Needless to say, Salters struggles to reach for any kind of help, but she only gets more frustrated and despaired instead. At one point, she confides to her mother on what she has to endure everyday due to Martin, but her mother, who has always disapproved of her daughter’s homosexuality, simply refuses to listen to her at all.

Fortunately, there comes unexpected support from Lisa Holewyne (Katy O’Brian), who was incidentally one of many adversaries in Salters’ professional boxing careers. Thanks to Holewyne’s positive influence, Salters eventually finds the determination for walking away from Martin once for all, though that turns out to be much more difficult than expected.

The screenplay by Michôd and his co-writer Mirrah Foulkes, which is based on the story by Katherine Fugate, comes to lose its narrative momentum around that point, and we become more aware of its rote plot and superficial characters, but Sweeney’s committed acting continues to hold our attention. Besides looking convincing during those mandatory boxing scenes, she also embodies well her character’s many messy emotional issues, and it is a shame that her good efforts are not served well by the movie itself.

In case of several notable main cast members around Sweeney, most of them are under-utilized due to their thankless supporting roles. Ben Foster, who has been one of the most dependable character actors working in Hollywood for many years, is merely required to look sleazy or menacing during most of his scenes, and Ethan Embry and Merritt Wever are limited by their thin characters from the very beginning. Katy O’Brian, who recently drew our attention thanks to her breakout turn in “Love Lies Bleeding” (2024), manages to bring some warmth to her few key scenes with Sweeney, and Chad L. Coleman, whom some of you remember for his memorable supporting turn in HBO TV series “The Wire”, briefly steals the show as that well-known real-life boxing promoter.   

In conclusion, “Christy” throws some strong jabs, but it is not good enough for recommendation. Needless to say, it can automatically be compared to Oscar-winning film “Million Dollar Baby” (2004), but it does not have the considerable emotional depth shown from that sublime sports drama film, and it is also considerably deficient compared to “Catch the Fair One” (2021) or “The Fire Inside” (2024). Although it is not a total waste of time, I still think you will have a better time with any of these three other movies.