Film That Puts Together the Entire Package

Rating: 9/10 (6 February 2011)

Russel, along with screenwriters Silver, Tamasy and Johnson do an excellent job with "The Fighter". The film was shot on location in Lowell, MA where the story takes place, and being quite familiar with the area, I can tell you that they nailed all the little details.
The performances are sublime, and everyone in the film is perfectly cast. Wahlberg underplays (as the real-life, quiet, big-hearted Mickey Ward), and Bale and Leo take advantage of every moment in their wonderfully-written roles, that are both surely award-winning performances.
It can be easy to forget how crucial proper casting is to a film. Often times, directors are put under enormous pressure to cast bankable stars or supporting players who may not be the right fit for the characters; especially if those characters are the gritty, un-beautiful, working class type (for an example of where this can go terribly wrong, see the lovely Cameron Diaz woefully miscast in Scorcese's "Gangs of New York". To see where appropriate casting is used wonderfully, watch every episode of HBO's "The Wire"). Russell clearly used a number of local non-actors in the film as well, and there isn't one in the film that you feel doesn't belong there.
After Russell made few off-kilter, slightly "unconventional" films, including I Heart Huckabees and having apparently behaved as a Class-A ass on the set of "Three Kings" (if George Clooney's account is accurate), he apparently felt the pressure to deliver a Hollywood-style "hit", and he surely did. And yet, there is nothing about this film that feels "Hollywood" (a pejorative term that tends to be related to something sappy, sentimental, and extremely false in it's feeling and execution).
One who studies boxing might think the fight scenes were a bit over-the-top, but that's the way the real Mickey Ward fought; able to withstand an enormous amount of punishment.
The story is clear, engaging, touching, funny, and honest. Which is proof that you can actually make a gritty docudrama that is entertaining for an audience. You just need a great script, great actors, perfect casting, and a highly-skilled director willing to take some chances. Piece of cake.
Speaking of cake, there's only point where the writers tip their hand that they may not have grown up in the northeast. At one point, Charlene asks Dickie "what's that blue stuff on your arm", to which he replies "(cake) Icing." Now, as any true Bostonian knows it's never "icing", but "Frawstin!"