The fighter and his family

Rating: Null/10 (24 February 2011)

There have been plenty of movies about professional boxing, both biographical and fictional. The Fighter is a very worthwhile addition to that list. It is based on the life of Micky Ward(Mark Wahlberg), a boxer from Massachusetts. He is a gutsy fighter with some potential but fears he may have missed his chance at the big time. He is trained by his half-brother, Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale), who still tries to live off the fame of knocking down Sugar Ray Leonard over ten years before. His mother (Melissa Leo) manages Ward rather poorly; signing him for fights he cannot win. She is a larger than life figure who treats Eklund as her favourite son. She ignores that Eklund is a drug addict and this is reducing Ward's chance of success. Eventually Eklund's lifestyle causes him to end up in jail.
However Ward, an easygoing man, is slow to rock the boat until he starts going out with a local barmaid (Amy Adams). She sees both his potential and the way he is being badly treated by his family. With her support he confronts them and tells them he is getting a new manager. Suffice it to say his mother does not take this too well.
The rest of the movie charts Ward's increasing success and what happens when Eklund is released from prison.
The performances are generally excellent. Christian Bale has rightly received plaudits for playing Eklund. A youtube search shows that his portrayal of him as a rather annoying non-stop talker is pretty accurate! Wahlberg is highly impressive in the less flashy role of Ward. He accurately portrays his frustration at the way his career is fading as well as his love for his family members who are causing that to happen. I thought Melissa Leo played the mother as an almost cartoonish character and this grated slightly with me. If she is as she comes across in the film in real life she must be impossible to live with! Her brood of daughters are similarly portrayed as being intimidating to say the least.
The boxing scenes are shown as if they are appearing on a TV screen and I found this, as well as the excellent fight choreography, made the scenes very authentic