Brotherly love - How far does it extend?

Rating: 8/10 (3 January 2011)

I don't know why I keep doing this to myself. I love good movies but man oh man I cannot watch a boxing movie without flinching. The fighter is a good underdog movie. The thing that makes it a bit different is the fact that the hero Mickey Ward (Mark Wahlberg) isn't the cause of his troubles; it's his love and devotion to his family and crack addicted Brother Dickey.
Dickey played by Christian Bale was heartbreakingly believable. The sad reality is that many people suffer from the same type of addiction that can slowly kill him, his family and his dreams. It is a hard look at how a person handles life after their moment in the spotlight has passed. It showed how difficult it is to live in the present and pass on your unfulfilled dreams to another. It takes a strong person to take hold of the what is truly ahead of them and put someone else's needs center stage.
The fight scenes in this movie are brutal. I can watch martial arts and sci fi shoot em' ups but when it comes to this type of one on one brawling, its difficult to watch. Mark Wahlberg stated he trained for a year to prepare for this movie. He didn't disappoint, every match looked real (as much as I could watch that is). But the fighting was not limited to the ring. The rowdy bunch Mickey Ward calls family had plenty of action outside the ring as well. Wow, this is a tough group of folk.
Mark Wahlberg is well on his way to being very Stephen King like in the way that he highlights hometown stories. Stephen King is synonymous with Maine as it looks like Mark Wahlberg will be with Massachusettes. But hey, every town has a story to tell, why not MA.
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