"All we ever wanted for you was to be World Champion."

Rating: 8/10 (12 August 2012)

If you need a single reason to watch "The Fighter", I would point to Christian Bale's performance as the crack addicted former boxer who's purportedly training his younger brother toward a title shot of his own. Bale is simply mesmerizing here, stealing every scene he's in, and even though he took the Best Supporting Actor for his work here, I think an argument could be made that he had a larger role than Mark Wahlberg. At least that's the way I viewed the picture, both times.
What's also fascinating to watch here is the train wreck of a family dominated by Melissa Leo's character, the mother of Dicky Ecklund (Bale) and Micky Ward (Wahlberg). I wouldn't want to speculate how the real life Micky kept his sanity in this household; you just have to go with the flow of the story focusing on his perseverance and loyalty to his brother through all the turmoil.
The film starts out by stating that it's based on a true story, but you know what, I gave up on that notion long ago when it comes to sports biopics. I recently watched "The Hurricane" and that one also played fast and loose with historical fact, so the better idea is to go into something like this as coming from someone's skillful imagination. This way you won't be disappointed. OR, you can approach it from the point of view of Dicky who developed an interesting condition affecting his memory bordering on Alzheimer's he dubbed CRS - 'can't remember s---'. I'm going to use that line starting today.
Here's a question - why did it take fifteen years from 1978, the year Dicky fought Sugar Ray Leonard, to 1993, the year this film begins, to have Dicky autograph the fight poster for the barber shop guy in an early scene?