I just recently saw "Belle Epoque"

Rating: 8/10 (27 January 2011)

Having seen "The King's Speech" yesterday and "The Fighter" today, I'd say that the latter isn't quite as good as the former, but I still strongly recommend both movies. The latter is about boxer Micky Ward, and his half-brother Dicky Eklund.
The half-brothers come from the economically depressed town of Lowell, Massachusetts. Dicky had gone up against Sugar Ray Leonard, but has since been in and out of jail, battling crack cocaine addiction. Now, Micky is trying to have a boxing career. But it's bound to be a tough journey.
This movie is very much about the characters. Practically all the characters are unpleasant in some way. Mark Wahlberg shows Micky to be someone whose experiences have forced him to always have a nasty side, though he always tries to do the right thing. Christian Bale shows Dicky to be a real burnout, but who truly wants what's best for his half-brother. Amy Adams plays what must be the first gritty role of her career, as Micky's bar-tending love interest Charlene Fleming. Probably the most intense character in the movie is Melissa Leo as Micky and Dicky's mother Alice: she's lived such a hard life that she's nearly incapable of being warm towards anyone.
Does the movie have any problems? Well, the boxing matches themselves seemed pretty routine for what we see in movies. Alice's hostility towards everyone around her came across as excessive - maybe absurd - in a few scenes, but it was clear that this was the only way that she knew how to be, and she wanted the best for her sons.
Overall, "The Fighter" is definitely a movie that I recommend. Like I said, probably not the year's best movie, but I do think that at least it would probably be justified to give Adams or Leo an Oscar. Really good.