Shadowboxer

Cuba Gooding Jr. and Helen Mirren star as Mikey and Rose (respectively), stepson and stepmother, lovers and contract killers, in this 2005 film directed by Lee Daniels. After Rose is diagnosed with cancer, she and Mikey choose to continue their contract killings. They are hired by mafia crime boss Clayton (Stephen Dorff) to kill his pregnant wife Vicki (Vanessa Ferlito), after he suspects she has been unfaithful to him. When Mikey and Rose enter the house to murder Vicki, her water breaks and she goes into labor. They take Vicki and her infant son to a motel, where Rose calls upon Dr. Don (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) for help. Dr. Don, who is also Clayton’s personal physician, and his nurse Precious (Mo’Nique) agrees to keep the woman and her baby a secret from Clayton. Rose convinces Mikey that they must keep Vicky safe, and the four of them move to Philadelphia. After Anthony’s first birthday Rose convinces Mikey to kill her while she is still happy and before she dies of cancer, but makes him promise to continue to protect Vicki and the child. For the next several years Mikey, Vicki and Anthony live safely in Philadelphia but when Precious feels betrayed by Dr. Don, she goes to Clayton and reveals to him that his wife and son are alive. In the meantime, after Anthony witnesses Mikey with a gun, Vicki tells him that he doesn’t need to protect them any longer. But, he realizes that Vicki and Anthony are what he wants, and asks her to stay with him. Mikey decides to get out of the business, and when he receives his final contract he opens it up and realizes that it is a contract on him and Vicki. Now, he is in a fight for his life, and fight to save the woman and child that he has grown to love.