LA Weekly

source: http://www.laweekly.com/2007-04-05/film-tv/film-reviews-the-reaping-are-we-done-yet-and-more

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by Tim Grierson

Proving that no interesting subsection of human beings is safe from the Rocky/Karate Kid triumph-against-the-odds model of inspirational filmmaking, writer-director E. Paul Edwards plunders the live-wire unpredictability of slam poetry to concoct an entirely unsurprising underdog love story. Jake (Jeff Stearns), a talented but undisciplined spoken-word poet, meets Marni (Tara D’Agostino), a book publisher who thinks he has potential. But once her tutelage carries over into a sexual relationship, plot contrivances emerge: Marni is HIV-positive. Jake and Marni hesitantly move forward romantically as Jake prepares to enter a prestigious slam-poetry contest where his chief competition will be David (C. Thomas Howell), an esteemed, arrogant poet who used to date Marni. For a little while, Fighting Words is a modest, agreeable character piece, illuminating those who ply their trade in an under-appreciated, intensely personal art form. But with maniacal insistence, Edwards soon steers his quirky tale toward conventional waters, crashing into a barrage of completely typical narrative beats that most certainly involves training montages, a big showdown between the two men in an 8 Mile–style finale, and a prolonged, manipulative game of “Will she die?” as Marni’s health grows progressively worse. As the story lumbers along on its predetermined course, Edwards breaks between scenes to show actual poets performing their slams to the camera. They aren’t all terrific, but at least their rush of shocking sexual frankness and painfully intimate vulnerability feels like it came from the heart and not from a Syd Field manual.