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The supporting case are top-notch, most notably Alan Alda, Kathryn Morris (whose career Lurie launched with The Contender) and Rachel Nichols. Easily the best bit part, however, belongs to the completely unrecognizable Peter Coyote, as a crusty boxing manager.

Dakota Goyo as Teddy, Erik's young son

While boxing films prove time and again to be among the most popular sports films, it would be a mistake to assume that Resurrecting the Champ is just another "boxing flick." The real arena here is not the ring, but the human soul, where the hard right does battle with the easy wrong. This is a film in which round after round will be played out in the innermost man, a struggle of conscience and expediency with very real repercussions for all involved.

To be certain, Erik is not the film's only character who must confront his demons and wrestle with the consequences of his actions. The Champ too is a man drowning beneath a lie so large he can barely find himself anymore. His destitution on the street is an apt metaphor for his dissolute spiritual condition. Both Erik and Champ are stuck running in circles, both to and from the expectations of others, so desperate to be someone they're not even if they have to compromise their souls to do it.

Erik's fall from grace does not blindside the viewer and should not surprise even Erik. Erik is a man who tells little white lies and tall tales to his boss, co-workers, and son in order to make himself look better or grease the wheels of his success. But even white lies have a way of turning on their tellers, and the dozens of small, seemingly innocuous compromises he makes throughout his life must eventually be reckoned with.

Resurrecting the Champ has much to say about the fallen state of humanity. But it also recognizes that how we get back up says almost as much, if not more, about us. Comparing the emotional nakedness of a writer on the page to the stark exposure of an athlete in the ring, Erik states that there comes a point when "there's no place to hide." Numbers 32:23 says it this way: "Be sure your sins will find you out." Erik is a man whose sins have found him in the most humiliating and public manner possible. His response to that exposure is what will decide if he will rise above the shadows and expectations of others to, at last, become a man, a husband, a father and a son.

Talk About It

1. After his story on the Champ breaks, a Showtime executive (played by Teri Hatcher) tries to tempt Erik away from his job at the newspaper with a far flashier yet far less consequential job as a TV broadcaster. In what ways does this situation parallel Christ's words in Mark 8:36, "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?"
2. "In the end, everything is about entertaining the audience," a character says, "It's not about the truth." In what ways has our culture made leisure and amusement more important than truth? Why has this occurred?
3. "If you profit by a lie, than you are as bad as the liar," Erik's wife tells him at the ethical crossroads of his career and possibly his life. "You need to behave as if Teddy was watching." For Erik, abject loss of hero worship in his son's eyes is the worst punishment of all. While not wanting to hurt a child or a spouse is an excellent way to keep our moral compass in line, is that the best way? Why or why not?
4. "I was more interested in what I wanted the story to be, than what it was," Erik tells his wife as he grapples with the repercussions of retracting the story that has made him famous. How often do we, on an almost daily basis, also bypass the reality of a situation in a mad rush to make it what we want it to be?

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