It’s strange to say the best part of a movie called Girlfight is actually the romance. In the midst of a bunch of other stuff going on, Girlfight doesn’t spend a whole lot of time on the relationship between Diana (Michelle Rodriguez) and Adrian (Santiago Douglas), but what time it does spend is sweet and surprisingly more affecting than many other films where the romance is the whole focus.

The rest of the film is not nearly as effective. It tells us the story of a teenage girl with an attitude who wants nothing more than to box. She is forbidden by her father (Jaime Tirelli), but goes behind his back and trains with her brother’s trainer anyways. Diana works hard and has natural talent, and so quickly becomes successful, even though she’s generally going up against boys of her own weight.

If this is sounding like Billy Elliot, it is. It’s scarily close for a film that came out in the same year. They both star young, talented, lower class kids who go against the wishes of their blue collar fathers and become successful in fields generally for those of the opposite gender. Both live with a single father and one brother, and both find their success, in part, through a mentor who is wholly dedicated to them.

Same structure, opposite effects. While Billy Elliot is graceful, powerful and uplifting, Girlfight is slow, painful, and degrading. Diana, though energetic and motivated, is a dark, prideful character who never changes or develops. Sure, her temper tantrums turn into something positive in the form of organized boxing, but her selfish attitude never does. She never learns from her kind, stable brother (Ray Santiago) or her unconditionally loving friend (Elisa Bocanegra). She just fights and hates.

Even more atrocious is the terrible way the conflict is resolved between Diana and her father – in a fistfight. I’m not asking for a change in heart on the part of the father the way Billy Elliot’s father softened, but this is awful. Even if the father was the one at fault, I can’t think of a worse way to depict a conflict resolution. Indeed, the conflict never really is resolved. Rodriguez does a really good job playing out the conflicted Diana in an impressive debut performance, bit it doesn’t make up for the awful character itself.

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