Catch the Fair One, 2022.
Written and Directed by Josef Kubota Wladyka.
Starring Kali Reis, Mainaku Borrero, Daniel Henshall, Michael Drayer, Kevin Dunn, Lisa Emery, Kimberly Guerrero, Jonathan Kowalsky, Gerald Webb, Tiffany Chu, Isabelle Chester, and Wesley Leung.
SYNOPSIS:
A former champion boxer embarks on the fight of her life when she goes in search of her missing sister.
Catch the Fair One opens with Kaylee (real-life championship accomplished boxer Kali Reis) sparring backstage and preparing for a fight in a literal and physical sense, but something is off. Mentally, Kaylee seems to be preparing for something else. Adding to that suspicion is an early scene where a fan (noticing her working at a diner) politely asks for a selfie, but not before questioning why it’s been so long since her last flight. Nothing about Kaylee’s current lifestyle suggests anything glamorous, as if something came up and life and derailed whenever superstardom she did have.
It’s also not long before it’s made clear that Kaylee had a sister. More specifically, she had a supportive younger sister that was kidnapped and sold into sex trafficking while underage, something that Kaylee deals with by beating herself up with guilt and taking the blame for allowing it to happen. The tragedy seemingly led to several self-destructive habits, whereas her mother, Jaya (Kimberly Guerrero), now runs group therapy grieving sessions for others coping with various losses. In one of Catch the Fair One‘s only weaker areas, there is also a fractured mother-daughter relationship with Kaylee convinced her mom wishes she was the one kidnapped instead.
Only seen in brief dreamlike flashbacks, Kaylee’s younger sister Weeta (Mainaku Borrero) remains a permanent fixture in her mind. Kaylee is also prepared and determined to put that boxing experience to use in a dangerous field, setting herself up to be sold into the same network of sex trafficking in a desperate longshot effort to locate and rescue Weeta. One could reduce the situation to a cliché “she’s in for the fight of her life,” saying, and it would fit quite literally, but it’s also gripping watching someone tough and capable make herself vulnerable in the most horrifying way. That sentiment is amplified by the fact that Kali Reis gracefully transitions from boxing ring to silver screen with a remarkable debut performance filled with an appropriate blending of rage, inner torment, and fear.
Of course, there is a slight pause for concern when Catch the Fair One decides to go down the conventional revenge thriller route (especially after a fairly standard first act of what trafficking consists of), but it’s offset by writer and director Josef Kubota Wladyka (he also conceived the story with Kali Reis, who takes spreading awareness to both sex trafficking and indigenous missing persons cases as seriously as anything she does inside a real-life boxing ring) wrings maximum suspense from every encounter without trivializing the purpose of the story. The sex traffickers themselves are bland, generic white men with barely any character, but not necessarily to a fault. They are pure evil that exists to spout chilling lines such as “do you think I remember any of their names” as Kaylee confronts and tortures them for information. It’s a fair trade-off for weak characterization.
There are far more horrors lurking under the surface, as Bobby (one of the major players running this disgusting operation and played by Daniel Henshall) has a wife and a son (played by Tiffany Chu and Wesley Leung). It only takes a few of these family interactions to realize that not only is the wife abused, but whatever parenting is going on has established that it’s okay for Bobby Junior to disrespect his mother, simultaneously painting his father as a cool figure. There is also a clear sense that Bobby’s wife is not even there of her own free will.
Whether or not this intrusion into this hellish world of sexual abuse is all in vain is irrelevant; Kaylee has to do this even if it means dying trying. There is a bleak and relentlessly dark tone throughout the narrative, and her compulsion to rescue her sister (Darren Aronofsky has an executive producer credit, which should give an idea of what those tendencies are like) effectively functioning as nasty left and right emotional hooks. If there’s anything fair in this world, Catch the Fair One won’t be the last time Kali Reis and Josef Kubota Wladyka shake viewers up with socially conscious thrills (perhaps one with more robust storytelling).
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
