You are Micky Ward

Rating: 9/10 (4 January 2011)

In David O. Russell's The Fighter, we are given a glimpse at the life of Micky "Irish" Ward (Mark Wahlberg) and his climb into the world of boxing. Micky, the brother of Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale), a former boxer whose claim to fame being his knockdown of "Sugar" Ray Leonard. Dicky trains Micky in their home town of Lowell, Massachusetts, under the management of their mother, Alice Ward (Melissa Leo). Micky is looking to get his fair shot at legitimate fighters, only his mother's managing skills go so far, landing him in smaller matches, and sometimes getting out matched. Micky's window is closing.
His brother Dicky, whose life has gone nowhere since his bout with Leonard, wanders off away from the gym, to one of Lowell's many crack houses. His love of boxing and family is only outweighed by his drug addiction. Micky's family matters outside the ring are killing him in the ring. He finds confidence in his new girlfriend, college drop-out Charlene (Amy Adams), a brazen, young vixen who is not willing to let Micky squander his gifts in the ring for a family he can't rely on.
This aptly named film is not just about boxing, let alone just about Micky Ward. It's about fighting to survive, fighting for love, for honor, and family. This is a film about the bond between brothers, between mothers and sons, husbands and wives, boxers and trainers. There are so many levels and ways to look at this film. Micky's struggles to achieve in the ring, Dicky's struggles with drug addiction, the list goes on.
One thing that is clearly evident here is the painstaking attention to detail that Russell takes in creating the world that Micky Ward boxed in. Filming at the very same gym Micky trained at, using the same cameras and crews that HBO Boxing used to film Micky's fights, and even casting one of Micky's trainers Mickey O'Keefe to play himself. It reminded me of Gus van Sant's Milk where van Sant used many shots from the documentary The Times of Harvey Milk and other television segments to recreate the feel and especially the look of Harvey Milk's San Francisco. Russell takes it even further with Dicky's life and includes the HBO documentary made featuring Dicky in the early 90s. (I won't give the title, but you can view it on snagfilms.com)
To back up this realism you need real, raw performances from the entire cast. For me, the success of the film lies on Wahlberg, without his commitment to the physical component of Micky's character and also his personality, the film would fail. He is supported by an incredibly cast, all of which give Oscar worthy performances, especially Bale. Bale's transformation into a wandering, drug addicted delinquent is something to see. His uneasiness on camera fits his character so well.
The two supporting females both surprised me from the start. I knew of Leo from Frozen River, an indie darling two years back garnering her an Oscar nod. Adams I had known from several films, including one of my favorites of two years back, Doubt. They both take off the gloves and get real dirty for this one. Leo looks like the poster child for 90s hairdos while Adams thick, nasty accent comes straight from the North Shore of Mass. Watching the two go at it on screen is fantastic. They really hit their marks.
At the end of the film we are shown a glimpse of the real Micky Ward and Dicky Eklund, following the shooting of the film. As if we needed more of a reason to love their performances, here we see exactly where Wahlberg and Bale drew their inspiration from. Their acting is spot on, another tribute to their devotion to the film.