Worth is a sports drama about a top contender in Muay Thai Kickboxing who trains for the title belt, all the while dealing with new relationships, money problems, and family.
Into the ring we go again, boxing a favorite go-to film for films about redemption and overcoming all kinds of personal hurdles. As such, it’s almost obligatory to mention Rocky in reviews like this – so here it is – the most successful and modern originator of the genre with dozens upon dozens of carbon copies spilling onto screens and digital video shelves since.
Now comes director, co-writer and star Eduardo Castrillo‘s micro-budget entry Worth, telling a familiar story and, okay, it’s not technically ‘boxing’ – it’s kickboxing – is an earnest little movie that may not have the polish and funding of its bigger studio counterparts but commits to its premise well enough to earn a look.
Ricky (Castrillo) is a young up and coming fighter, ready for a chance, working hard at the gym both as a youth teacher and a Muay Thai contender. Opportunity knocks when he gets a shot at a title match, needing now more than ever to get in the best fighting shape of his life. As the date looms in the near future, he begins a new relationship with meet-cute Danielle (Samantha Aper), a paralegal student with her own ambitions. Meanwhile, he’s out of money and dealing with family who don’t always understand his passion, though his biggest test in coming.
For a kickboxing movie, there really isn’t much energy to Worth, the film more about the character of the athlete than his punching prowess in living up to the title. Ricky is barely ever in the ring, hardly even seen training, and does little it seems to get ready for his title fight other than not eat carbs. In fact, Worth is far more a love story than a fighting movie, but so was Rocky, though that film at least put its star in some fistacuffs and centered the love affair around a big bout.
Still, there is one fight in the movie, brief as it may be, and is unfortunately, the weakest part of the film, the match set in a room with about fifteen people in folding chairs awkwardly cheering for a contest that is hardly seen nor that believable. And then it just sort of stops. Either way, it’s clear the filmmakers have appetite in delivering the goods but are simply too strapped for cash to make it work.
That’s pretty much an assessment for the whole film, struggling to truly invest us in the bittersweet tale, one that breaks things down into the most basic tropes, including a main character ending up in the hospital and a fighter not sure he can muster up the umph to go on. Admittedly, there is some impact behind these predictable turns, but they don’t quite resonant as perhaps intended, mostly because it’s imagery we’ve seen well enough before.
However, there’s great chemistry between Castrillo and Aper, the two genuinely making a few moments feel true as their on-screen relationship blossoms. I really liked these two character, the film easily the most enjoyable when the couple come together. Also good is Tony Todd, of all people, who shows up as a detective training under Ricky. Wish there could have been more of him.
Worth works hard to be bigger than it is, dumping the kickboxing for romance and tragedy, ultimately leaving the movie feeling a little hopeless, even if that somehow elevates the last act. That’s probably on purpose, this being a slice of life movie about real folks rather than underdogs. Surely, Castrillo is trying to do something different with the genre and maybe deserves some praise for doing so. It’s easy to judge this against some blockbuster hits of the like, and naturally, it would come up short, but on its own, for what it does with what it has, Worth finds its place.