Three Powerful Turns in a Biopic That Favors Family Dynamics Over Rounds in the Ring

Rating: 8/10 (19 January 2011)

A trio of remarkable performances propels this frenetic, punch-drunk take on a dysfunctional family saga, and the compelling 2010 drama marks a return to form for iconoclastic director David O. Russell (his last film was the failed existential comedy, 2004's "I Heart Huckabees"). Written by Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, and Eric Johnson, the film tells the fact-based story of boxing half-brothers "Irish" Micky Ward and Dicky Eklund, eking out a blue-collar existence in Lowell, Massachusetts. Dicky once went the distance with Sugar Ray Leonard back in 1978, but it's the mid-1980's now, and he's vainly trying to recapture that moment of notoriety. Micky, on the other hand, remains firmly in Dicky's shadow, as he tries to follow in his footsteps and become a professional fighter. Most of the plot focuses on the demons that haunt and control them. Dicky's are internal as he has deteriorated into a scarifying crack addict and criminal, while Micky's struggles come from the stranglehold his family has on his life and career. Dicky is Micky's trainer, and their hell-bent, bottle-blonde mother Alice is his manager, neither of whom are willing to admit that they aren't savvy enough to get Micky a decent shot at the welterweight title.
Micky's one personal salvation comes from his no-nonsense girlfriend Charlene, a tough-talking bartender who goes toe to toe with Alice and her seven grown, detestable daughters. Naturally, this sets the stage for a battle over Micky's soul. The irony of the film is that Micky has to be a dramatically inert figure since he is really a victim of his family's volatility. Consequently, Mark Wahlberg leverages his likable average-guy demeanor to play him in an economic manner that manages to evoke sympathy for his stoic, often passive character. This gives room for Christian Bale to steal his scenes handily with blazing intensity as Dicky. He dropped thirty pounds to shape his wiry, bug-eyed performance, and it sears in the memory. The gifted Melissa Leo ("Frozen River", "Conviction") is equally fearless as the manipulative Alice, a vainglorious Lady Macbeth figure who is willing to steer her son toward failure if it means he won't abandon her. As Charlene, Amy Adams ("Enchanted") surprises the most with a flurry of F-bombs that serve to protect her clear-eyed commitment to Micky, even though her character has been developed mostly on one angry note. All three deserve recognition during the awards season.
If the movie has one persistent flaw, it's that most of the rest of the characters are reduced to caricatures, especially Alice's big-haired daughters who act like a dispiriting Greek chorus to the proceedings (and strangely no bratty children surrounding them). The comic moments are welcome, but sometimes the approach feels like it cheapens the story. Russell's idiosyncratic filmmaking style is evident throughout with the camera constantly shifting to match the nervous energy of the narrative. In order to stick to the facts, he and the screenwriters shift the story in the home stretch to Micky's journey toward the title and more or less, abandon the head-butting family dynamics driving most of the story. Although the film ties up the fate of the characters neatly, it begins to feel more like "Rocky" than "Raging Bull" toward the end, and a certain hollowness permeates the film's resolution, even though cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema does an excellent job staging the fights leading to the inevitable ending. However, these are forgivable lapses in judgment given the stellar work of Leo, Adams and especially Bale.