Micky Ward's toughest opponent...his family.

Rating: 7/10 (9 May 2013)

The Fighter, the true-life story of boxer Micky Ward, suffers somewhat from the fact that Micky Ward is pretty much the least interesting person in the movie. Micky is just a normal guy, trying to make his way in the world, hoping for that title shot. Unfortunately his family is far from normal, they're a bunch of lunatics. It is Micky's family, and his feisty girlfriend, who provide all of the film's personality. Micky is a rather bland character, left to do little more than react to all the chaos swirling around him. It's supposed to be Micky's film but, probably mirroring reality, Micky was never destined to be the star of his own life story.
Mark Wahlberg turns in a perfectly acceptable performance playing Micky but there's really nothing memorable about what Wahlberg does here. All the big showy moments go to other performers. Most notable is Christian Bale playing Micky's crackhead brother, and trainer, Dicky. An eccentric character to be sure and Bale holds nothing back in his portrayal. Bale might be a little too eccentric in his mimicry, so obviously performing that it becomes a little distracting. It's a performance which really calls attention to itself, maybe too much so. Look at me, I'm acting! Also wildly over-the-top is Melissa Leo playing Micky's chain-smoking, rather grating mother and manager. Amy Adams plays Micky's girlfriend Charlene, showing some great spunk as she stands up to Micky's looney tunes family in a way he never will. Micky also has a collection of seven sisters who are portrayed here in a way that seems to be meant to provide some comic relief. But they don't come across as funny, they are just pathetic.
With all the nonsense around him Micky really does end up getting lost in his own movie. His is an interesting story but the way it's presented here it's not even really about him. His family overwhelms him and overwhelms the movie. But the movie does still manage to be compelling. It may never quite grab you like some other boxing movies we've seen. The boxing scenes themselves are not notably better or worse than those we saw in so many other movies. There is the frustration that there is so much time spent with Dicky, who is a total train wreck, and the mother who is about as unsympathetic a character as you could possibly have. But the movie still packs a decent punch. It's not a great triumph if for no other reason than it struggles to make us invest in the central character. The other characters steal the show. Those characters are interesting in their own ways. Still it probably would have been better if The Fighter were actually about the fighter.