no one expects Berry to reinvent the sports movie, but still she manages to impress on both sides of the camera in the final act. There, in the ring, actor and character alike are reminding themselves - and the world - what they're capable of
it's not badly made, necessarily, just entirely unsurprising. The saving grace is British theatre actor Sheila Atim, arresting and intriguing in a key supporting role
Halle Berry puts her cast, herself included, through the paces of performing the brutal grind of the boxing ring; With the camera quick to pick up on displays of blood, sweat and tears, every drop of tenderness feels hard won
Halle Berry delivers a gritty, moving & strong directorial debut; While formulaic, "Bruised" beats the odds by being a fairly entertaining & moving sports drama that has everything one would expect from a Halle Berry film
despite the ambition of her directorial debut and some skillful scenes, "Bruised" probably won't be remembered for much beyond reminding audiences of Halle Berry's enduring strength in front of the camera
"Bruised" isn't breaking any new ground from a narrative standpoint, but it does show the strength of Halle Berry as a director, boasting a powder keg of dominating performances within a simplistic story
"Bruised" emerges as an unwieldy mixture of lazy sports-flick chestnuts and tired melodrama, shot through with some standard Sundance film stylings, that never finds an originality of voice to mirror its director's depth of feeling for the material
by Richard Roeper [Chicago Sun-Times ]
by Ferdosa Abdi [ScreenRant ]
by Ian Freer [Empire Magazine ]
