'AGAINST THE ROPES' NOT EVEN FIT FOR DON KING.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

FROM MEG RYAN'S turn as a brassy but, ridiculously, celibate sexpot to fight sequences that uniformly lack punch, ``Against the Ropes'' talks tough but never delivers the goods.

It's the ``inspired-by-a-true-story'' story of Jackie Kallen, America's first successful female manager of male boxers. Much of her life has been changed in the movie for the usual, not very good storytelling reasons. Her early days in the ring business have been pointlessly switched from Detroit to Cleveland, her spouse and sons have been edited out of the picture, and her first client, Omar Epps' Luther Shaw, is a composited fantasy. But such fiddling is not the film's main problem. Failing to develop characters with any kind of dimension is.

Ryan plays Kallen as a spunky gal who loves the sweet science and must climb on fishnet-clad legs over mountains of sexism to make her mark in the sport. She lets her ego get the better of her once she has a little hard-earned luck at the game. Shaw is a directionless, natural talent who just needs a little focus, mothering and discipline to turn his life into something. He appreciates all Jackie does for him until her ego gets the better of her.

That's about it. Luther is provided with a perfunctory love interest (the always-good Kerry Washington, wasted here). Jackie isn't permitted anything like that, although she does have a corner full of male conscience-tuggers (Charles S. Dutton as a wise old trainer, Tim Daly as a TV sports reporter) and an opposing team of glass-jawed straw men (Joe Cortese as her chauvinist pig boss, Tony Shalhoub as a mobbed-up rival promoter). What either of the main characters think, or feel, about anything not directly related to their career ambitions remains wholly unexplored.

The excuse can be made that boxing is a pretty life-consuming sport, and breaking the behind-the-scenes gender barrier must have taken a lot of effort, too. But no fight movie worth its gloves has failed to bring out the compelling human drama outside of the ring. Just look at the sentiment in the early ``Rocky'' entries or the searing effect of ``Raging Bull.''

The female empowerment theme, which should be new and exciting here, just seems like a date-friendly replacement for the genre's standard, crooked gambling subplot.

The film is also directed by Dutton, who's done the job better with stronger-written cable efforts ``First-Time Felon'' and ``The Corner.'' Epps does most of his own boxing; while he's fine, he isn't outstanding, which is what the story (or, frankly, any movie drama) calls for. And while we can't expect every boxing movie to come up with a new, more visceral way of presenting the action, the usually stellar cinematographer Jack N. Green (``Unforgiven,'' ``Twister'') doesn't even try for angles or camera choreography beyond the pugilistic basics.

Ryan convinces us that she's woman enough to get Kallen's job done while pouring herself into those outfits. If a fully articulated woman had only been brought to the match, it might have been a performance for the record books.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

AGAINST THE ROPES - One and one half stars

(PG-13: violence, language, drug use)

Starring: Meg Ryan, Omar Epps, Charles S. Dutton, Tony Shalhoub.

Director: Charles S. Dutton.

Running time: 1 hr. 51 min.

Playing: Wide release.

In a nutshell: True-life story of the first female boxing manager is so faked-up and formulized that not a second of it rings true.

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Photo:

Omar Epps shows himself to be a good, not great, boxer in his ``Against the Ropes'' fight scenes.