Boxer Jimmy (Dan Liebman) gets a shot at a title match, and even though
everybody tells him his opponent is a killer, he's not prepared to let the
opportunity slip. But trying to prepare for his fight, Jimmy's life falls
apart, triggered by his wife's (Anna Rizzo) announcement that she's
pregnant, something that Jimmy deals with in the worst possible way - and
all of this leads to a crippling defeat, a defeatthat leads to his
manager/coach wanting to drop him, not because of the defeat as such but
the attitude that led to it. But feeling all alone and down-and-out, Jimmy
makes the acquaintance of the boxing ring's janitor (Bobby Kenney), a man
he has seen hundreds of times but never so far even acknowledged - but now
that the two do get to talk, Jimmy realizes this might be more than just a
chance encounter ... A film about boxing ... without a single
scene of people actually boxing - and it works, too, seeing the sport only
as both a metaphor and a trigger for the bigger picture. What really
counts in this movie is not the action but storytelling, direction and
performances to bring the movie's message across - and Crossing Paths does
very well in these departments, managing to bring across a rounded out and
multi-leveled story in less than ten minutes. Definitely worth a watch!
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