Grade: A-
Director: David O. Russell (Three Kings)
Writers: Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
Starring: Mark Wahlberg as “Irish” Micky Ward, Christian Bale as Dicky Eklund, Amy Adams as Charlene Fleming and Melissa Leo as Alice Eklund
So, the best boxing movie I’ve ever seen is Cinderella Man. I don’t know how anybody can top that. Ron Howard’s deft direction of brilliant performances from Russell Crowe, Paul Giamatti and Renee Zellweger went criminally un-awarded, only Giamatti garnering a well-deserved Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture. Knowing that going into seeing The Fighter, I was looking for something to top it. From what I had read and heard about it, David O. Russell’s boxing epic was something special and a big contender for the Best Picture Oscar. Like Cinderella Man, The Fighter is also based on a true story.
Dicky Eklund (Bale) is a washed-up, crack-addicted fighter who once knocked down Sugar Ray Leonard and is the pride of Lowell, Massachusetts. He spends his days training his younger brother Micky Ward (Wahlberg), who is an up-and-comer of his own managed by his mother Alice (Leo). Ward is seen as a stepping stone, and after getting beat up pretty bad by a guy who has 20 pounds on him, decides to step back. Dicky, devastated, gets arrested for beating up a police officer. Inspired by his new girlfriend Charlene (Adams), Micky gets new management and a new trainer, a police officer named Mickey O’Keefe (played by the actual person, a great move by Russell and producer Wahlberg), and starts winning fights. But the family, especially Dicky, lurks in the background, itching for a shot to get their boy back.
Christian Bale is a completely different man in this film. Comparing him in The Fighter to his character in The Dark Knight is like comparing a wet noodle to a banana. He lost a lot of weight and muscle and researched for the part by taking notes on the real Dicky’s mannerisms and recording conversations with the guy to get the accent down. And did he ever. If Mr. Christian Bale does not finally pick up an Oscar for this film, something is wrong with the Academy. I feel like I say that a lot, but it’s true here again. He disappears into his role, taking all my preconceptions about him as Batman and losing them in the first two minutes he’s on screen. That’s what’s required to have a great performance: complete transformation from an actor into a character. That’s what Bale did here. Just like James Franco in 127 Hours and Jeff Bridges in True Grit. Complete transfiguration. He is the main actor in this movie, not Mark Wahlberg. The film is as much about Dicky Eklund’s regeneration as much as it is about Micky Ward’s. And that’s where Russell makes this film better than Howard’s Cinderella Man. He manages to craft the two brothers’ stories together as one narrative.
Speaking of Mark Wahlberg, this is his passion project. He said once, “The last six movies I did I was also secretly preparing for The Fighter at the same time, so I would leave three hours early for work and go to the gym and spend three hours there. I would bring the trainers with me on every movie that I did.” Those films would be We Own the Night, The Happening, Max Payne, The Lovely Bones, Date Night and The Other Guys. I’d say it was worth it. He was perfect for the role, filling in all the necessary dramatic moments with what was needed and all the fights, well, let’s just say he was perfect for the fights. But he was clearly overshadowed by Mr. Bale.
Melissa Leo and Amy Adams also impressed. Ms. Adams went against type, playing a tough-as-nails bartender who stands up for herself and her boyfriend. It was interesting not seeing her as the cutesy redhead that she was in films like Julie & Julia, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Leap Year, Doubt and Enchanted. She held her own. Melissa Leo also transformed herself into a strict, “loving” mother who causes problems for Micky. Her scenes with her sons were some of the best in the film, showing the impact family strife has on all involved. A couple of my favorites were the early interactions between Adams and Leo. Fantastic acting on all parts.
Besides mixing the stories of Dicky and Micky well, David O. Russell runs a rather formulaic movie, to be blunt, and does not do much to impress directorially. And the script is typical stuff, Bale making some of the dialogue bearable.
It’s just the performances. Like Giamatti in Cinderella Man, Christian Bale and his character are not only the driving force behind the main character, the boxer, the fighter, if you will, but the movie as a whole. It’s the additional performances from all the other leads that make The Fighter a real Best Picture contender.
Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg star as half-brothers in David O. Russell's new film The Fighter.
