The Fight

A young boy and a middle-aged man are brought together by hard times in this independent drama from Canada. Jesse (Maxime Desjardins-Tremblay) is a twelve-year-old kid growing up in a rough neighborhood in Montreal. Jesse is fascinated with professional wrestling and regularly attends matches featuring local grapplers, and given his home life it's no wonder he craves escapist entertainment -- Jesse's father (Stephane Demers) is a low-rent crook who either abuses or ignores him, and his mother (Suzanne Lemoine) is too busy maintaining her drug habit to be bothered with him. Jesse feeds himself and makes pocket money though shoplifting and collecting deposit bottles, but he has nothing in the way of an adult role model until he meets Max (Jason Roy Leveille). Max is homeless and has no prospects, but he's kind and compassionate and strikes up a friendship with the boy. Jesse and Max become partners as they struggle to get by on the margins of the big city, and Jesse begins to embrace Max's bitter but philosophical attitude about the odds stacked against them. Le Ring (aka The Fight) was screened as an official entry at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival.~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide