Richard Gere portrayed an emotionally wounded homeless man struggling to find peace within himself in the low-budget 2014 film "Time Out of Mind" and now Thomas Haden Church does much the same in the sweet and heartfelt, if ultimately less powerful, "Cardboard Boxer."
Church is Willie who resides in a box on LA's notorious 5th Street, aka "The Nickel," aka Skid Row. His life is a blur of hunger, helplessness, and regret for events that are never quite explained. Then three things happen: Willie befriends Pinky (Boyd Holbrook), a paraplegic war vet also living on The Nickel; while dumpster diving, he discovers the charred remains of a diary written by a lonely, abused young girl; and he gets suckered into "bum brawls" staged by rich kids looking for cheap thrills.
When the film focuses on those first two elements, it's quite moving. The bond that develops between Willie and Pinky is palpable while his letters to the girl _ he makes paper airplanes of them and sends them aloft from a rooftop _ is the ultimate display of hope over hardship. He knows she's not going to see them but writing them brings him comfort and, maybe, by extension she can feel it, too.
The back-alley fights, though they provide the movie's title, a rush of action and move the plot forward to a too-neat conclusion, feel as if they're from a different film. Still, as directed and written by Knate Gwaltney making his feature debut, "Cardboard Boxer" is a strong showcase for Church, one of those actors with a long resume who gets too easily taken for granted.
