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# Ryan’s hope for ‘Ropes’ to keep aging gracefully
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/ryans-hope-for-ropes-to-keep-aging-gracefully/
- Published: 2004-02-20T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T03:51:23.000Z
- Author: Dan Dunn
- Tags: Entertainment, Santa Monica, #archive-import

As difficult as it is to accept for a generation of movie lovers who saw “Top Gun” in theaters, Meg Ryan is too old to be America’s Sweetheart anymore. Her reign really ended in 1998 with “You’ve Got Mail,” but it took the subsequent saccharine stiffs “Hanging Up” and “Kate & Leopold” to convince the effervescent blonde that “cute and adorable” now belonged to Reese Witherspoon (though it’s doubtful Reese, or any actress for that matter, will ever equal the sublime cuddli-ness of Meg circa “Joe Versus The Volcano” and “When Harry Met Sally”). Last year’s “In The Cut” was 40-something-Meg’s coming out party, with the actress baring it all in a lurid erotic thriller by Jane Campion, a filmmaker who will never be confused with Nora Ephron. The maturation of Meg continues in Charles S. Dutton’s boxing drama, “Against The Ropes,” which features Ryan as a highly fictionalized version of real life boxing manager Jackie Kallen.

As the film tells it, Kallen, who grew up around boxing and knows the sport inside out, is stuck in an unfulfilling job as a secretary at a Cleveland sports arena when she’s presented with an opportunity by Midwest boxing kingpin Sam LaRocca (Tony Shalhoub of TV’s “Monk”). Like most men in her life, LaRocca thinks Jackie’s nothing but a dumb blonde, and plans to prove it by saddling her with a washed-up prizefighter. Sure enough the guy’s a bum, but Jackie stumbles upon a street fighter named Luther Shaw (Omar Epps) and two careers are born. Luther’s the real deal, and despite LaRocca’s best efforts to thwart her, Jackie manages to get her undefeated middleweight plenty of exposure and a shot at the title. But as her star rises, Luther’s ego gets bruised and a rift develops that threatens to knock out the Cinderella story.

This film is no champ, but it’s not completely punch-drunk either. Ryan and Epps both hang tough and deliver despite being saddled with some weak dialogue and a story that loses focus midway through. Director Dutton, who also co-stars as Luther’s seen-it-all trainer, can’t decide whether to go “Erin Brockovich” or “Rocky,” so he tries both. The result is a split decision that whiffs more than it connects.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/022004-11_01.jpg)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 20, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/022004.pdf?ref=smdp.com)