Chick Fight

Directed by Paul Leyden, Chick Fight follows down-on-her luck Anna Wyncomb (Malin Akerman) as she’s drawn into an all-female fight club and eventually starts training, alongside Alec Baldwin’s Murphy, to become a top-ranked participant. It’s an often excessively familiar premise that’s employed to watchable yet forgettable effect by Leyden, as the filmmaker, working from Joseph Downey’s paint-by-numbers screenplay, delivers an erratically-paced drama that hits virtually all of the touchstones one has come to expect from the genre – with the decidedly less-than-fresh atmosphere compounded by Steven Holleran’s garish, bland cinematography and several underwhelming periphery performances. (The latter is especially true of Bella Thorne’s laughable and entirely unconvincing turn as the aforementioned fight club’s toughest brawler.) There’s little doubt, then, that Chick Fight‘s tolerable atmosphere is a result of its growing emphasis on Anna’s appealing progression into a fierce competitor, and it’s clear, too, that the climactic stretch is perhaps far more involving and compelling than one might’ve initially suspected – with Akerman’s ingratiating, agreeable turn as the sympathetic protagonist going a long way towards smoothing over the narrative’s missteps. (Baldwin’s predictably charming work here doesn’t hurt, either.) The final result is a decent-enough endeavor that offers little in the way of surprising, innovative elements, to be sure, yet it’s ultimately difficult not to get wrapped up and engrossed in the central character’s exploits.

**1/2 out of ****

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