Plot: "Irish" Mickey Ward (Mark Whalberg) is a welter-weight fighter from Lowell, Massachusetts living in the shadow of his half-brother Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale) a former boxer and Mickey's trainer. Under the constant strain of domineering manager mother Alice (Melissa Leo) and Dicky's crack addiction, Mickey struggles to find a way out of the cycle of family disfunction to get a shot at the title.
Review: Let me say this now so there is no room for discussion: BELIEVE THE HYPE. The Fighter is a classic boxing movie right on par with great pugilistic films like Rocky, Raging Bull, and Requiem for a Heavyweight. Less of a "boxing movie" and more of a drama with boxing in it, The Fighter has everything: redemption, fantastic acting, a brilliant score, great directing, and breathtaking cinematography.
Personally I've never been a huge fan of director David O. Russell. I thought Three Kings was grossly overrated and I Heart Huckabees is just God-awful. But where Russell's works have failed before, The Fighter makes up in spades. What struck me the most was how Russell chose to shoot The Fighter. Rather than shy away from the dingy streets of Lowell, we get a gritty dark picture of the town, especially the crack house that Dicky frequents. Yet the people of the town have immense pride especially in hometown heroes like Dicky and Mickey. This is highlighted at one point in the movie after Mickey loses a fight and decides to take his girlfriend Charlene (Amy Adams) to a movie outside of Lowell. Knowing how much pride the town has, he didn't want to show his face publically. Mickey's act is equally admirable and tragic. The scenes in Lowell contrast well with the actual fights themselves, which are shot in a HBO-boxing night-like way. Credit this to cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema. Russell and Hoytema's collaboration on The Fighter is a perfect match.
One of the key ingredients to any good film is to make the audience care about the characters. Love them, respect them, or hate them, Russell makes you care about every character in this film. Wahlberg is excellent as Ward both from a physical and emotional standpoint. In fact The Fighter has had so many problems getting off the ground, that Wahlberg stayed in boxing shape for over four years. Now THAT is commitment to a role. It is also a much more reserved role for Wahlberg than we are normally used to. Ward finds it hard to say how he really feels especially about his family, preferring instead to have Charlene speak for him. When Mickey finally does stand up for himself it makes the moment have a much greater impact. It shows how far Wahlberg has come as an actor since the days of movies like Fear.
You wouldn't expect a movie that centers around the boxing life to have such strong women characters but there are. Amy Adams and Melissa Leo both portray strong, tough women that aren't willing to back away from a fight either. Both care for Mickey in their own ways and are quite literally willing to fight for him. I can't say that either Adams or Leo outperformed the other which is probably why both will end up getting Oscar nominations. Adams character is the anti-Adrian from Rocky. Rather than demure and mousey, Adams is tough and outspoken. Leo on the other hand is just as hard, standing toe to toe with promoters and her husband alike. The scene where she throws dishes at her husband is at equal times funny and appropriate.
As you might have guessed though, the person who really steals the show is Bale. His portrayal of the crack addicted Dicky Ecklund is a sight to see. From his wild eyes, to his constant fidgeting and talking, to his fellow-well-met attitude, Bale nails it. Bale's performance is just as physical as Wahlberg's but in a different way. Bale lost an extreme amount of weight to portray Ecklund and the constant greasy shine to his skin and pieces of missing hair drive home the picture of a crack addict. Bale's seemingly constant energy and positive nature and delusions about his past boxing exploits contrast well with moments like when he begs Charlene to come back to Mickey's corner or his reaction to the HBO special about crack addiction featuring him. The audience is constantly torn between pity, anger, disgust, and hope for Dicky. Perhaps the thing that resonated most with me was how much he really cared about Mickey. While tension abounds there is always a strong undercurrent of love. There is no doubt in my mind that this is the year for Christian Bale. He will win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. I'm convinced.
While the ultimate outcome of The Fighter does have thematic elements of other boxing movies, it is by no means canned or predictable. On the contrary, The Fighter is quite simply a first round knockout.
My rating: 10/10
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