How many boxing movies do we need? Apparently, never enough!

Rating: 8/10 (24 February 2011)

How many boxing movies do we need? Apparently, never enough! And is every boxing movie an Oscar contender? It seems so. Some have compared The Fighter to Rocky and Cinderella Man. Boxing and the underdog overcoming obstacles would be the two themes that run common between the three movies. I've also heard it's similar to Raging Bull, but I can't say anything on that as I haven't seen the particular film.
The Fighter has a simple plot. Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) wants a boxing title.
Micky Ward always stood in the shadows of his older brother Dickie Eklund (Christian Bale). Dickie was once a title contender, who's moment of fame was knocking out Sugar Ray Leonard, but has since become a crack-addict. Though 15 years have passed since that knock-out, Dickie lives daily in that story's repetition and the dream of having a come-back. A camera crew is following Dickie to chronicle the effects of cocaine, but Dickie and his family believes the documentary is about his comeback. Dickie played such a strong role, I didn't realize Micky was the main character of the movie for the first hour or so! Between Dickie and their Mom (Melissa Leo), Micky was submissively suffocating in the shadows, all the while allowing himself to be used in the selfish gains of his Mom and brother. With the help of his girlfriend, Charlene (Amy Adams), Micky develops some backbone and finds clarity to his life. He pulls himself away from his overwhelming, tight-knit and crazy family and starts training. Getting to that point of growing a backbone and standing up for himself was quite the internal struggle for Micky, which the movie does a very good job of depicting.
Behind every great man is a great woman. The mother is a great woman gone bad. You know that she means well. She really loves her family and wants to keep the family together. The desire of seeing her boys rise to fame started as selfless devotion but turned into selfish self-fulfillment. It blinds her from truth and reality. She turns a blind eye to Dickie's drug addiction and failures and refuses to face the truth that a real manager could provide better opportunity for Micky. But her character brings the meat to the movie - the story of family, commitment and tenacity. Charlene, on the other hand, is a great woman. She really supports Micky and wants what is good for him. At one point, she started going down that path of ruin that the mother started on at some point, but with the help of Dickie (suprise!), she comes back to her senses.
Marl Wahlberg gave an acceptable performance. Perhaps it would seem more impressive if Christian Bale hadn't dominated the screen. He completely owned his character. I'm not a fan of him as a person, but I can't help but be amazed by his passion and skill for acting. He dropped a lot of weight to the point that he looks morosely ill with thin balding hair and brown teeth. The way he talked, walked, ran, interacted... I had to keep reminding myself that this was Christian Bale I was watching, much like how I keep reminding myself that I'm watching Marlon Brando in the Godfather. Yes, that's right. I'm comparing Bale's performance to Brando. Only in this instance, though. You realize fully what a superb job Bale did when you see the real Dickie during the closing credits. Bale is my horse for that Oscar race. Amy Adams did a very believable performance. She was gumption and grit with a good dose of sexy.
I was impressed with the direction of this film. Every scene had such life, grit and realism to it. Very commendable, to say the least. The cackle of sisters and family life brought a good touch of humor to the otherwise serious movie.
While The Fighter is generally categorized as a boxing movie, there's so much more to it than the sport. It portrayed the life of a working-class/poor family's struggles; the good, the bad and the ugly of a tight knit family; and how far tenacious determination can really take you.