Jokes and smiles aside, Cash and Jett also share a difficult bond, one stitched by the former’s history of physically and verbally abusing his son. With “Embattled” director Nick Sarkisov using MMA as a starting point, this muscular yet cheeseball sports drama concerns this father and son closing their open wounds.
It’s not clear who “Embattled” is for. Set in Birmingham, Alabama, Cash is your prototypical toxic masculine figure. And therefore, the all-too-clear villain. He tells Jett, who he’s training to be a fighter, to listen to Rob Zombie and the Deftones rather than Colbie Caillat. Cash despises any hint of weakness in his sons, and if he must, he’ll beat it out of them. When Jett refuses to stop listening to Colbie Caillat, Cash spars with him, and to the shock of everyone in the gym, purposely throws a cheap shot at Jett. The fighter also despises his other son Quinn (Colin McKenna). Diagnosed with Williams Syndrome, with Cash derogatorily referring to him as “Tard,” the outgoing Quinn has the tendency to ask forward questions. At school, he asks a group of girls whether they stick their tongues out at each other. At home, he quizzes Jett about Pornhub. Cash relegates Quinn into the unacknowledged son, and would rather he didn’t exist.
David McKenna’s jumbled script jumps from Cash’s tough love approach with Jett to subplots that miss their intended body blows, like as Jett’s home life. While Cash lives in a luxe mansion with his sensual new wife Jade (Karrueche Tran), and their young son Kingston (Jakari Fraser), his ex-wife Susan (Elizabeth Reaser), who Cash once abused, is forced to waitress to support Jett and Quinn. Through Susan, Sarkisov tries to hit upon the struggle that single mothers face when caring for developmentally challenged children. He also shines a light on the little-known Williams Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder. While Colin McKenna, the real-life son of screenwriter David, provides an assured performance, a tearful kitchen table scene between Jett and Susan buries these important themes under Mann and Reaser’s cheesy overacting.
There are other background arcs that mix school with romance. Jett is smitten with a girl named Keaton (Ava Capri), and he's also trying to set up a date between his mom and Quinn’s teacher, a wheelchair using army veteran, Mr. Stewart (Donald Faison). These subplots are underdeveloped and tonally incoherent, in the sense of them being very YA, and could be excised without anyone noticing. Considering Faison isn’t disabled in real-life, and the way the narrative fashions his character into a prop, one meant to elicit cheap putdowns aimed at Cash, the inclusion of Mr. Stewart is a case of outdated representation begetting zero inclusion. It’s a shame because Sarkisov took the time to thoughtfully cast not only McKenna, but other developmentally challenged adults in significant roles.
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