Catch the Fair One

This gritty drama looks at a Native American boxer's quest to find her lost sister, taking her on a journey through the underbelly of sex trafficking.

Kaylee, aka “K.O.”, is legit tough stuff. A veteran boxer with a deadeye stare and lighting-fast mitts, she’s got a jacked body and a willingness to lay her flesh on the line for what she believes in.

And what she believes in, as chronicled in the gritty drama/thriller “Catch the Fair One,” is to find her long-lost sister, who she believes was captured and sold into the dark underbelly of sex trafficking.

We’ve seen actors play boxers including women, most notably Hilary Swank in “Million Dollar Baby.” But real-life boxer Kali Reis is especially convincing as Kaylee, someone who looks like they’ve faced off plenty of opponents in a boxing ring, or just a grimy alley.

In the opening scene we see her preparing for a bout, being taped up and warmed up by her trainer/best friend, Brick (Shelly Vincent, also a real boxer). She plucks out her cheek and tongue piercings, which seem like the totemic accoutrements of a respected warrior — which, as an American Indian woman of mixed heritage, she very much is.

(The characters refer to themselves simply as “Native,” so I’ll adopt their language.)

As the story opens, Kaylee has not fought professionally for nearly two years, and has recently cleaned herself up from drug use. She barely has a relationship with her mother (Kimberly Guerrero), who runs group meetings for Natives like her who have lost a loved one to drugs or sex work.

Kaylee is working in a greasy diner and sleeps in a community center for women, tucking a razor blade into her cheek each night and waking up with her mouth bloody. It seems strange, but it’s clear that she is preparing herself, body and mind, for some kind of quest.

This takes her to the lair of Bird (Michael Drayer), a young peddler in runaway girls and other victims of the flesh. Kaylee’s plan is pass herself off as another wayward female staring down a dead end of prostitution, knowing there is a market for creeps who prefer Native girls. Her hope is this will lead to her sister.

After a dimly-lit trek through vans, railroad cars and the backs of semis, Kaylee eventually finds herself in the hands of Bobby (Daniel Henshall), a very normal-seeming middle-aged man. He quickly sniffs out her real intentions, though, and it’s the beginning of a deadly conflict that will also involve his father, Willie (Kevin Dunn), a wealthy upstate New York businessman.

Kaylie makes for an arresting anti-heroine. In the course of her quest she will do some pretty horrendous things — some justified by self-defense, some not. She will eventually find herself with the upper hand over not just Bobby but his wife, Linda (Tiffany Chu), and their young son.

We find ourselves at various times admiring Kaylee, lamenting her anger and the violence it leads to, and being unable to recognition the two. This is intentional by writer/director Josef Kubota Wladyka, who adapted the screenplay from a story by Reis herself, an advocate and supporter of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMWIG) movement.)

The movie thrums with a weighty sense of authenticity and serious purpose. Sex trafficking is one of the most terrible invisible problems in the U.S. today, with tens of thousands of vulnerable youngsters, many of them women of color or Native, bartered and used like any other consumable good. Our culture simultaneously celebrates and shames sexuality, so people find ugly, demeaning outlets for their darker impulses.

Kaylee’s role as a sport fighter stands as disquieting counterpoint to the sex trade. Both involve people willing (or not) to use their bodies for money. With the rise of MMA, we’ve become comfortable with cheering for blood, and in our social media we celebrate each other’s embarassments and failings.

“Catch the Fair One” registers as a stoic mix of revenge saga, crime thriller and siren call for the abused and lost. It features a mighty heroine who’s capable and willing to bust heads — to save her sister, but also to punish the wicked.

It’s cathartic, depressing and uplifting, all at once.