One of the best of the year!

Rating: 8/10 (20 December 2010)

I had some pretty high expectations going into the theater to see this movie and once it was over I have to admit that I was disappointed in some things, but I was still overall very happy with the outcome.
The movie starts off about a boxer Mikey(Wahlberg) who is getting ready for a fight to stop his 3 fight losing streak and he is quite confident that he will win. He's so confident that he is telling everyone in his town that he is going to win. Meanwhile his some what famous brother(Bale), also Mickey's trainer, is addicted to crack which is affecting his training with his brother. Mickey's mother (Leo) is his manager who clearly loves her older son Dickey more than Mickey. Something happens at the fight that makes Mickey question whether or not he still wants to be a boxer. He meets Charlene (Adams) who gives him the confidence to try one more time, but this time it will be without the family being involved.
First things first this is not a full out boxing movie, it's more a movie about family. The story is quite interesting do to the fact on how dysfunctional the family is. Mickey is so blinded by love for his family he doesn't realize that there pretty much destroying his career. He finally gets support from his new girlfriend who helps him stand up for himself. The boxing in this movie is not very good, it feels very choreographed, but like I said the boxing is not the main part of the story.
Mark Whalbergs performance is good just nothing special. During the movie I even thought to myself that this is a performance I've seen him do before. Amy Adams is also very good, I just don't see what is so special about the performance. I don't believe she deserves any type of awards or even nominations. On the other hand Melissa Leo is AMAZING as the mother. You dislike her from the get go, literally 5 minutes into the movie. I've always said that if you hate someone enough that every time you see there face on screen you want to punch them that the actor is doing a great job and that is what Leo does with her character. Finally last but certainly not least Christian Bale's performance is incredible. It's the best performance I've seen all year. Going into the movie I heard a lot of great things about his performance, but you truly have to see it to believe it. He some how makes the character lovable even though he is a drug addict and a failure.
All in all the movie is very well acted with a great story about family and love. My only complaint is the boxing, but there truly isn't too many boxing scenes in the movie to take away from the movie.