Kid Snow, the latest from Australian director Paul Goldman and writer John Brumpton, is marketed as a boxing movie. But it’s much more than that. It’s also a love story and above all, a family drama.
With everything that’s going on, some of the layers mesh together well. But as a whole, the movie fails to bring all of the plotlines together in a compelling way. Each member of the cast gives an endearing performance, but the end result is not enough.
No matter how you look at Kid Snow, it’s just an ok movie.
As a boxing movie, there are a few good sparring scenes, and the main character, Kid (Billy Howle), has an intense independent character journey worthy of the boxing movie genre. But simply put, a boxing movie needs a climactic final match and this one is lacking, opting for an emotional punch, rather than a physical one. The writers forfeit Kid’s physical achievements as a boxer in favor of his personal storyline. I admire the unconventionality of this choice, but it just doesn’t land.
As a love story, it’s cute. Kid and his romantic interest, Sunny (Phoebe Tonkin), do have chemistry that’s evident onscreen. But their attraction isn’t built on anything and the steps they take to get close to each other are awkward and corny. In the end, we’re rooting for them out of a vague idea that love is good so they should be together, not based on any real and earned demonstrations of love that we’ve witnessed from them.
The movie shines best as a family drama. The main conflict is between Kid and his older brother Rory (Tom Bateman). The two men’s lives, careers, and livelihoods are so intertwined that neither feels they can advance without the other, even as they simultaneously hold each other back. The most fought-for storyline in the film isn’t about love or boxing—it’s about family. While it was right for the writers to make this the central conflict for Kid Snow to overcome, they did it at the expense of telling a good love story and giving us good action sequences of Kid in the ring.
Billy Howle plays the title character, which is perfect because he has a face that somehow conveys both youthful innocence and a dark sinisterness. Likewise, Phoebe Tonkin, who radiates such beauty, also demonstrates a heaviness from abuse and hard living in her character, Sunny. Similarly, Tom Bateman’s embodiment of Rory shows his strength and toughness, but also his physical and emotional weakness. All of the characters are both gifted and broken, and the main cast plays them effectively like real, raw, flawed people.
This duality is mirrored in the setting of the Australian outback as well. Kid, Rory, and their crew are immigrants from Ireland, presumably coming to Australia for better opportunities. Yet they’ve ended up as carnival workers, doing taxing work and barely making enough money to survive. The shots of the sun shining over the red, dusty clay tangibly capture the sense of hope and brutality these characters experience.
While Kid Snow leaves a lot to be desired in terms of plot and action sequences, the film has heart. And when it comes to the boxing movie genre, heart goes a long way.
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