Opponents aren't always confined to the ring...

Rating: Null/10 (18 July 2011)

On paper this movie looks just like every other boxing movie churned out by Hollywood in the last eighty years or so: a boxer rated by nobody overcomes the odds to have a crack at a title fight and win the respect of his peers. What sets this one apart is the fact that the boxing itself takes a back seat for the most part while the story concentrates on the interplay between the key members of real-life boxer Micky Ward's mightily dysfunctional family.
Mark Wahlberg as Ward is the leading man, but in reality it's Christian Bale's picture. He plays Dicky, the crack-addicted older brother of Micky who once shared the ring with Sugar Ray Leonard (who makes a cameo appearance) and even put him on the canvas (or did he?). Bale, who lost a huge amount of weight and closely studied the real-life Dicky, inhabits the role so completely that he commands your attention when he's on the screen, and when he isn't leaves you wondering when he's going to come back .
The film was made with the full co-operation of Ward and his family, so it's quite surprising that the film pulls no punches when showing all their quirks and shortcomings. They're a boozy lot, ruled over by a domineering, tarty mother (Melissa Leo) who leads her long-suffering husband a miserable dance and rules with the sharpest of tongues a gaggle of homely daughters who seem to do nothing other than sit in hypocritical judgment of anyone unfortunate enough to cross their path. In the midst of all this, Wahlberg looks kind of lost, and is largely called upon simply to respond to the chaos that surrounds him even when he finally gets his boxing career on line.
So, although on paper The Fighter contains all the typical genre tropes, it provides a raw, unflinching insight into the domestic pressures a journeyman boxer must overcome from which most other boxing movies shy away. This is probably one of the top five US movies of 2010.