Good Movie with Great Acting, That Lacks the Emotional Punch

Rating: 8/10 (23 March 2014)

The Fighter is supposed to be an equivalent to a real-life version of Rocky by telling a story of an underdog that is battling long odds and adversity for a shot at being a boxing champ. The story follows two brothers, one living on his past glory and the other trying to revive his boxing career. Mickey Ward (Mark Wahlberg) is the younger brother of the very flamboyant Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale) whose claim to fame is he once knocked down Sugar Ray Leonard, but now is a crack addict in and out of jail. Their mother Alice Ward (Melissa Leo) micromanages Mickey along the way in the hopes of getting her other son Dickey back into the spotlight. This worked until Charlene (Amy Adams) came along and stood up for Mickey's best interest. What transpired was a classic underdog tale mixed with a lot of family drama and some romance.
The Fighter's main theme is the true story, underdog tale of Mickey Ward who has many obstacles set before him on his way to win the championship belt. The interesting thing about this movie is the way it was shot. It was filmed like a docu-drama to give it an authentic and gritty feel. In the early 90s, HBO made a real documentary about Dicky Eklund, who thought it was about him reviving his career, but it was really a documentary about crack addiction. A big chunk of the first half of the film was basically reenactments of those scenes in that documentary. This technique extended to the boxing sequences as well, making them feel like the audience was viewing the actual bouts that were shown on HBO back then. The way the director utilized this technique really made the film feel authentic and it flowed very well.
Another technique the director used to bring the film theme to life is the soundtrack. There are two examples of the great use of the soundtrack. The first is the use of 'Good Times, Bad Times' by Led Zeppelin. This song was playing when things just started going good for Mickey, while his brother was in the process of getting arrested for posing as a police officer. There were shots mixed of Mickey with everything going good and shots of Dicky were everything was starting to unravel. This choice of song really added to this scene and brought out the serious nature of what was happening. The second song of choice was the power ballad 'Here I Go Again' by Whitesnake. Mickey and his brother were singing the ring-entry song as he was about to enter the ring in the final match. This was an excellent song choice for this scene that had many meanings and layers to it. It was a great use of song for Dicky because he is living his dream through his brother. He had his chance to win the title and lost. He has another chance through his brother of overcoming the odds and beating the giant that is in front of him. It was a great use for Mickey's character as well because while he may be accompanied to the ring by his brother, he can only win this belt on his own the same way he has had to overcome everything else throughout the movie.
The Fighter was supposed to be a true story version of Rocky. It's another boxing movie about an underdog over-coming trials and tribulations to become champ. The problem is unlike Rocky or Raging Bull; I didn't feel the connection to the main character Mickey Ward. I felt more invested in his brother Dicky and maybe that was because Mickey was so passive and didn't have much personality. I know it's supposed to be true to life, but I just didn't feel invested in Mickey's story. When he wins the title I didn't feel the triumph as much as I felt it was just a conclusion to the story. The acting was great and most elements of the film were fantastic, I just think the film didn't do a good job getting me invested into Mickey's character. In a boxing genre that is already crowded; this movie, while very good, did not stand out to me or even crack my top 5 boxing movies. I think the main story here was about the family and all the drama surrounding that which took away from the underdog story of Mickey Ward. It's a true story and I expected to get powerful emotional feelings, but this movie, despite the great acting, lacked the emotional punch I was expecting.