Karyn Kusama’s first feature film gives us a character and a plot, to sink our teeth into. The film’s heroine, Diana, played by tough newcomer Michelle Rodriguez, is a troubled teen. She fights her classmates, her principal, and anyone else who crosses her path. Stand up to her and you will be on the receiving end of a slam dunk to the face. She lives at home with her weak-willed, bully of a dad and her brother Tiny (Ray Santiago) who has problems of his own. An artist by nature, he is forced to take boxing lessons.

When Diana sees Tiny back away from a sucker punch from his sparring partner, she steps into the ring and takes care of business. She finds that not only did she enjoy it, but she feels much better afterwards!

Diana quickly learns that the boxing gym does not welcome women, no matter how tough she is. Furthermore, her father will not hear of it and she faces harassment and ridicule from the other boxers. But this does not stop her. Diana has found the one place that she belongs and she is not deterred easily. Coached by a cynical Panamanian immigrant, using the money Tiny did not spend on lessons, she improves her skills and her outlook on life.

At the gym, Diana meets a handsome boxer (surprise surprise) named, aptly enough, Adrian (think Rocky), played by Santiago Douglas. Theirs is not a typical romance, more a series of confrontations built around a mutual attraction. However, the relationship avoids the saccharine clichés of most movies; their love is not perfect, but believable.

When they are called upon to fight each other in the ring, many of Girlfight's issues surface: If Adrian wins, it won't be a real victory because he was fighting a girl. However, if he loses, it would be embarassing. Why? And why is it so strange to witness a woman play an aggressive, gritty sport? Are we socialized to think of the woman as a passive counterpart to the aggressive male? With women entering every type of sport imaginable the sight of pumped-up, hard-working, sweating, grunting, toned, aggressive females is becoming more and more familiar (editor's note: yes, boys, we know this is a turn-on). Girlfight offers us a glimpse of this femme sportive and the struggles she faces in this new territory.

Overall, Girlfight is an uplifting look at one woman's triumphs but, at the same time, it reminds us how much higher we still have to climb.

• Send Sande your comments and me (Mel, the Editor) your boxing stories.