It took five years for struggling actor J.P. Davis to gain attention for his script “Fighting Tommy Riley”, and Davis refused to sell the script unless it was agreed that he play the lead role. If that were not enough, three of those years were prep for the role, as Davis actually trained as a boxer for an extra edge. Finally, on an indie budget and with a new director Eddie O’ Flaherty, the film was made, and made the festival rounds in the US before being betrayed with a low key DVD release. While the film has some problems, for a low budget drama on a shoestring, it is a decent effort. Still, considering the underdog fight to get the film made, I would have thought that a commentary from Davis and/or O’ Flaherty would be on tap. No such luck. The DVD is stripped of any possible special features anyone could imagine. I guess I should thank First Look Entertainment, the distributor, for at least keeping the 2:35 aspect ratio.

Story begins where a Marty, a washed up trainer turned high school teacher has another chance to escape his hokey students, as his old friend-student Diane, who is setting up a new independent boxing promotion business. With Marty’s background in finding new talent, they team up and look at various gyms. One boxer who gets thier attention unexpectedly, is Tommy Riley, who, as it turns out, lost a spot on the 1999 Olympic trials. Tommy nomadically from gym to gym, and struggles to support himself and keep his girlfriend, Stephanie, who, despite loving him, could ditch him at any time. Marty and Diane offer Tommy a contract, and within time, train him to focus, and even set up a re-match with the same boxer he lost to at the trials. The new string of matches in between help Tommy’s financial troubles, and soon him and his girl are back together.

But while Tommy’s secret comes out- faking an injury- early on, there’s another secret about Marty, and strangely, we can see such hints, and when Marty invites Tommy up to the cabin for private training and clean air, this isn’t a father-adopted son situation, and I will not mention it here for even without mentioning it, anyone could figure it out. Everyone, that is, except Tommy Riley.

Not until Marty starts rubbing him down with oil, and feels the crack of his ass, anyway. “What was that!” a confused Tommy demands ” Marty’s body language and embrassment, however, confirms the real story. Well, come on now, Tom, what did you think it was?
We then get into Marty’s past, why he quit training in the first place (related problems) and we admire Tommy’s loyalty and forgiveness, and where the film goes from this point on. But it does get heavy handed as the big speeches and the soap opera quality near the film’s end threaten to hijack the film.

“Riley” is still a good showcase not just for Davis, who is, for the most part, convincing as an agressive fighter who needs guidance and direction, but also for character actor Eddie Jones as Riley’s trainer, Marty Goldberg. The tight budget shows sometimes, mostly in the boxing ring scenes, which are slightly disappointing. On one hand, the brevity of them suggest the movie is more on character study, on the other, you wish there was more footage of them. I don’t fault the film for the lack of boxing action, for the characters steer clear of cliches and neat plot contrivances. Still, because the boxing film wants to be different from other boxing films, it succeeds on that level.

I do fault the DVD distributor, though, for treating this indie film like a piece of dirt. It deserves better.

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Fighting Tommy Riley
Directed by: Eddie O’ Flaherty
Starring: Eddie Jones, J.P. Davis, Christina Chambers and Diane Tayler.