J Paul Johnson
Props are due to the independent Irish film Swing Bout just for getting its chance in the ring. Shot on the proverbial shoestring and set in the gritty world of female boxing, Swing Bout features a fascinating milieu, a strong set of performances, and a keen understanding of its characters. It’s also, unambiguously, a risk-taker, opting for some unusual narrative and stylistic choices that don’t quite pan out. Despite its title, Swing Bout is not really a sports film—a climactic fight takes place outside the ring, not in it—and certainly not as female-centric a story as its imagery and publicity might suggest.
A “swing bout,” for the record, is one that may or may not take place. Boxing promoters need to fill their contractual TV schedules even if there are a series of quick knockouts or an unexpected withdrawal, and so they often create an undercard of bouts that may or may not fight. A swing bout boxer is there to plug a hole, so to speak, expected to enter the ring on short notice. And that’s exactly where the action of Swing Bout takes place—in the locker rooms and small offices (and toilets) of a boxing venue where the main card fights take place.
Swing Bout is more concerned with the sport’s underbelly than the action in the ring. As the four female swing bout boxers await their fates—will they be called to perform, or not?—the action centers primarily on Toni Gale (Ciara Berkely), a tall, quiet young boxer just getting her start in the sport, with a 2-0 record to date. Toni’s focus is primarily inward: she uses her headphones to drown out the sounds of the world around her and channel in on the voice of an unconventional motivational speaker she finds inspiring.
Toni’s slated opponent, should she be called to the ring, is “Vicious Vicki” (Chrissie Cronin), an outwardly more experienced and confident boxer whose trash talk belies a waning self-belief. A subplot involves two other swing-bouters, but the narrative focus here seems to be placed squarely on the broad shoulders of young Toni as she awaits her big chance. Berkely is compelling, but her character feels underwritten: her taciturn nature leaves little opportunity for characterization. Had Swing Bout’s script focused more closely on her character, developing it in some greater detail, and followed through as she ventures into the ring for an important bout, it might have make for an excellent women’s sports movie—a subgenre still too uncommon today.
Swing Bout is not that film, though. It’s more interested in the shenanigans and subterfuge that take place outside the ring. Toni’s coach, Emma (Sinead O’Riordan, one of the film’s producers) is playing the bout’s promoters, the Casey brothers Jack (Ben Condron) and Micko (Frank Prendergast). Playing all the angles, Emma lets Toni know tonight “ain’t her night,” so to speak: despite her talent and ambitions, Toni is to take a dive that will let Emma score big on a side bet.
As the offscreen action unfolds ringside, Swing Bout stays underground. It’s something of a risky conceit, born of both financial limitation and narrative experimentation. A traditional boxing film is expensive to produce, requiring an arena, hundreds of extras, significant training and safety precautions, stunt doubles, and skilled trainers and choreographers. Keeping underground in the locker rooms and offices (and toilet!) of the Pairc Ui Chaoimh Stadium in Cork where it was filmed in its entirety, Swing Bout has little need for any of the above. Writer-director-editor Maurice O’Carroll is also aiming for something less generic with the script, letting Emma’s scheme, rather than Toni’s bout, drive the second and third acts.
Keeping the action underground entails some risks. The dimly lit sets create a visual malaise. For most of Swing Bout, there’s very little of interest to see: solely one character talking to another. Some of the dialogue renders scenes inert with little narrative drive, just necessary (and some less-than-necessary) exposition. O’Carroll does make some fascinating choices in the edit, though, in one scene cross-cutting between two separate sparring sessions that together feel like a mano-a-mano in the ring. And there is, throughout the film, some nifty sound design that keeps the offscreen events of the televised bout itself always present and evolving alongside an occasionally thumping soundtrack. Even then, though, these choices serve mostly to remind of what you won’t see in Swing Bout.
The biggest risk of all takes place at the evening’s conclusion, when Toni and Vicious Vicki take to the ring. That’s not the fight, though, that Swing Bout depicts. Instead, O’Carroll’s choice is to focus on another fight entirely. It’s a daring risk and it almost, almost pays off. It’s surprising, it’s motivated, and it’s bloody, taking the film into Tarantinoesque territory. It’s even pretty cool. It’s just not the conclusion to a female-centric sports film or to Toni’s challenge one might have reasonably expected.
Swing Bout has already earned lots of kudos on the festival circuit as it heads towards a digital release beginning May 12. There’s plenty of talent both in front of and behind the camera, and I look forward to seeing more from O’Carroll, O’Riordan, and Berkely in particular in the future. Swing Bout feels a little like it “coulda been a contender,” to borrow a certain phrase, for something even better, kind of like a prizefighter who doesn’t quite get their crack at the big time. What it delivers is something different, and to my thinking, a little less substantial than its promise.
