Christian Bale's performance is a knock-out ....

Rating: 7/10 (3 February 2011)

THE FIGHTER is a new film from director David O. RUSSELL (Three Kings, I Heart Huckabees), depicting the story of the early years of Micky Ward (played by MARK WAHLBERG – Boogie Nights, Planet of the Apes, Italian Job, The Departed) the boxer, known to his fans as "Irish", and who was trained by his ex-criminal, drug-addicted, half-brother trainer Dicky Eklund who helped him in the early years before Micky went professional in the mid 1980's – on his improbable journey to winning the world light welterweight title.
The early part of the film opens with a TV documentary being filmed about Dicky (played by Christian BALE – Batman – The Dark Knight/Batman Begins, American Psycho, The Machinist), who's main claim to "fame" was that he once boxed in 1978 with Sugar Ray Leonard and knocked him over  although, the vast majority of people agree that Sugar Ray Leonard tripped
Dicky is the trainer and very much a hero to the gullible Micky  unfortunately, Dicky is living very much in the past and in a drug-induced haze  he believes the documentary is to chart the progress of his "comeback"  although the TV producers are actually filming it for a different reason entirely
Micky's boxing progress is actually very much hampered by an increasingly unreliable Dicky, and his domineering Mother-of-nine Alice, (played splendidly by MELISSA LEO) who is also his Manager and after a series of mis-matched bouts against vastly bigger opponents Micky starts to think about quitting – until he meets barmaid and love interest Charlene (played by AMY ADAMS – Enchanted, Sunshine Cleaning)who is convinced in his potential and advises him to seek a new manager and trainer  which brings them into direct conflict with "the family"  at which point all hell breaks loose
There is a fair amount of pugilist action (as you would expect) to keep the fans of boxing happy  are there are some strong performances by some of the cast – namely the lovely Amy Adams and Melissa Leo
The "real" star-turn of this movie though, is the performance of Christian Bale – who steals every scene he is in with a terrific performance – he has been nominated for best supporting actor Oscar  and on this evidence he deserves it – as his performance was a knock-out ...
As for Amy Adams and Melissa Leo – they have both been nominated for best supporting Actress – now that is a punch up I would like to see!
THE FIGHTER is 115mins long, is rated an R certificate and will be on general release from 4th February 2011