Fighting for your life ... almost literally speaking in this case. Two brothers, one goal. And yet their relationship is shaky. Or at least it is vulnerable on many things. Trust, having given up so many things ... expectations ... wanting the best for your brother and so many other things. Add a woman and her own issues to the mix ... and it becomes an almost explosive cocktail of sorts.

The acting is more than decent and the story moves along nicely. I reckon you can guess a few things or most depending on how much you invest in thinking ahead of time. Still this is quite the enjoyable movie, where the fight scenes work as much as the dramatic scenes. There is heightened reality to it to ... and an ending that I reckon is bittersweet at best ... or maybe you feel different about it.

Brothers Stanley (Charlie Hunnam) and Walter 'Lion' Kaminski (Jack O'Connell) struggle to survive by breaking into homes and buildings in the northeast. Lion does underground bare knuckle boxing after a failed boxing career. Stanley gets into money trouble with Pepper who coerces the brothers to transport Sky (Jessica Barden) to scary Yates in Reno on their way to a big Jungleland fight in San Francisco.

I mostly like this movie and these characters except they keep doing stupid stuff. I don't actually buy Pepper handing Sky over to the brothers. If Yates is as scary as that, Pepper would still be held responsible. It's much safer to do it himself although it could be considered human trafficking. I don't think Sky is a minor so that's a plus. Handing her over to the brothers is asking for trouble. As for the brothers, they are not asking enough questions. Their fight is like arguing about the deckchairs while the Titanic is sinking. It's a bit besides the point. These characters don't make sense. The last act is full of questionable dumb things being done by the brothers which can only be excused by them being frustratingly dumb. It's frustrating to watch character that you root for doing dumb stuff. Otherwise, these are good actors doing compelling characters.

I don't usually write reviews but after seeing the criminally underscored rating, I decided to. In short, this film had me drawn in with the talent, hooked with the plot, invested in the characters and satisfied with the ending. A pleasure to see O'Connell, Hunnam and Jessica Barden give stellar performances side by side in beautiful cinematography.