(Fragments from that 1962 film are interspersed throughout.) He asks Linda out and she turns him down.

Naomi Watts plays Linda, a local bartender whom Wepner falls for instantly, not just because she's beautiful, but because she has seen 'Requiem for a Heavyweight,' his #1 all-time favorite movie. Ron Perlman plays Wepner's manager, working out of a run-down gym, trying to drum up gigs. She just makes her points, devastatingly, as the two culprits squirm. Phyliss, his wife ( Elisabeth Moss, who has one of the most interesting and busy careers in show business right now), loves him, supports him, but also has her limits, as shown in a wonderful scene early on when she breaks up a 'date' he's on with some blonde bimbo. When the film opens, Wepner is a Bayonne celebrity, the BMOC, the guy who walks into a bar greeted by cheers. There's something compelling about seeing a man who is so strong and so weak, simultaneously.

But 'Chuck' ultimately works, mainly because Schreiber is so watchable. 'Chuck' struggles initially to find its footing, with an over-reliance on voiceover (much of it inspired by the style of Ray Liotta's deadpan in ' GoodFellas') and an extremely on-the-nose soundtrack ('I Believe in Miracles'-already over-used in film soundtracks-playing over a scene of Wepner traveling to an important fight, etc.) These choices dominate early on, and don't leave you any room to make up your own mind.

Chuck wepner