His Strength And Weakness

Rating: 10/10 (24 December 2010)

I'm figuring that The Fighter is going to win one flock of awards just looking at the nominations already received by this film by several film ratings organizations. The Fighter should be good to go for the Oscars, especially for Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, and Melissa Leo.
This is the true story of Micky Ward who lived a real life Rocky story albeit in a lighter weight class. Ward like the screen Rocky Balboa was headed for the career of a steppingstone type pug who turned things around in a very big way. He also redeemed the family name somewhat because he had an older brother who had a title shot, but lost it and then turned to a life of petty crime.
Mark Wahlberg who never seems to lose his New England speech pattern no matter what role he's cast in is brilliant as Micky Ward. I'm betting that it's a matter of pride to him because he certainly could afford the speech lessons. Wahlberg's biggest problem in the film is his family they are his strength and weakness. That's something he could draw from in his own family if you know something of his background.
Opposite Wahlberg is Christian Bale who has played all kinds of roles with differing accents in his career. He's as skilled as Robert Mitchum was at accents. He's got the Boston accent down perfectly as the older brother who's doing time in the can for some petty criminality and his scene at showing the pangs of crack withdrawal are reminiscent of Frank Sinatra in The Man With A Golden Arm.
But I think who really owns this film in whatever scene she's in is Melissa Leo, mother of nine children, who doubled first as manager for Bale in his career and now is steering Wahlberg's career. If she's not nominated for an Oscar in the Best Supporting Actress category she will have been robbed. Seems like I've heard that in a boxing story before.
The Fighter was shot in Lowell, Massachusetts where Ward and his family are from and director David Russell is as good with the camera as with his players. He and his film merit considerable Oscar consideration.
Do not miss a film that is destined to become one of the great boxing movies ever.