The boxing is just boxing, but the human story, the Lowell scene, is terrific

Rating: 7/10 (4 April 2011)

The Fighter (2010)
It's hard to make a boxing movie that isn't just another boxing movie, and yet it happens over and over again. The drama in the ring and the cast of odd characters behind the scenes, and the unlikely heroes that most boxers make, are great storytelling stuff. And "The Fighter" shows it has the goods, even if it is, at is core, just another boxing movie.
What makes this one special is the particular oddity that two brothers were both contenders, and the family supporting one and then (in a way) the other in their quests was quirky and often nasty in the process. Set in Lowell, Mass., this is working class America of the last two decades, filled with rough poverty, drugs, and its fair share (plus some) of small city losers, one way or another. That's why a winner, or two winners, makes such a fabulous splash. Yet the story is laced with genuine heartbreak, anger, selfishness, idiocy...and determination and savvy.
In the end, something comes out of all this that makes a special case for never prejudging people. That might apply most of all to the family of these two men, with the infighting and truly narrowminded views they naturally had, almost housebound in a poor neighborhood. It's easy to point to the two actors at the center of it, Mark Wahlberg as the younger brother and a shot at the title and Christian Bale as the older one with a serious crack problem. But the rest of the cast, the promoters and the parade of sisters, not to mention the steely over zealous mother and the good guy dad, are all amazing. Amy Adams, an extraordinary talent, comes through with hardened realism as the girlfriend, as well.
The filming here is very good if not conspicuous (it's no "Raging Bull"), and the story line, hobbled a bit by the fact that it's a true story and had to stick to certain facts, is more inspiring than interesting or dramatic. I mean that in a filmic sense--the boxing part of the story in particular, of an underdog rising up, has been told too often to be especially gripping.
But then, it's all handled so well, and acted with such intensity, you'll end up sucked in and impressed by the end, whatever your (and my) reservations.