Bale is wonderfully baleful; Wahlberg is as common as Wal-Mart

Rating: 7/10 (6 February 2011)

Action man Mark Wahlberg and actor Christian Bale play real-life boxing half-brothers 'Irish' Micky Ward and Dicky Eklund. Dicky, once a decent prospect, now trains the ageing Micky, but has fallen into a grim world of drugs and debauchery. He clings on pitifully to his one, probably apocryphal boast, that he knocked down 'Sugar' Ray Leonard. Under pressure from his feuding family, Micky is experiencing a losing streak and wonders whether his heart is still in it.
Credit to both men for how they immerse themselves in their roles. Wahlberg exercised for several years – because filming dates kept being postponed – and has come out as muscled as a Belgian Blue bull. Bale shed much weight, which he does so easily, and adopts a slurring, simpering diction to portray his baleful character.
There's no triumphalism, which came as a surprise, no hair-raising anthem and no excessive scenes of impossible training manoeuvres. Director David O'Russell went for the low-key approach, using light and dark humour to full, sometimes over-, effect.
Even though it may have been true to life, domestic scenes are over the top. Likewise, I found it odd that one minute Dicky was drugged up, delaying Micky's training and the next he was lucid, literally running back to his brother. Films as entertainments aren't supposed to retell real stories verbatim: making a documentary was always an option. The boxing scenes, however, are masterly. Not an exaggeration: I actually noticed myself move to dodge hooks and escape uppercuts.
Welshman (though he prefers the term 'Londoner') Christian Bale is one main reason why I go to the movies. Not yet 40, he has given powerhouse performances in 'American Psycho', 'The Machinist', 'Harsh Times' and 'Rescue Dawn'. And that's without mentioning he is Batman. His misfortune is that he near kills himself to prepare for films unworthy of his efforts. Sadly, 'The Fighter' again shows him to be in a class above everyone else in what is another pedestrian story.
Whilst this film goes some way to reassure us that the boxing genre isn't quite defunct, it doesn't match the power of the first two 'Rocky' films, or the schmaltzy charm of Ron Howard's 'Cinderella Man'. It's somewhere in the middle.
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